Cii. VI r. 



L EICES TER SHIRE. 



HS 



thereby a park. As I remember it is an 

 8 miles from Leicester, it longgid as I 

 herd sumtyme to the Erles of Leycester, 

 now it is the kinges." Here is a herd 

 both of fallow and red-deer. 



At Coleorton in this neighbourhood was 

 an ancient park, imparked by John de 

 Maureward, in the reign of Edward I.'' 



Staunton-Harold, the ancient seat of 

 the Shirleys Earls Ferrers, is marked as 

 a park in all the older maps, but it is not 

 known when it was first enclosed. There 

 were two parks here : the great park, to- 

 wards Bredon on the hill, was disparked 

 by Sir Henry Shirley, Bart., in 1623. The 

 smaller park by the house remains to this 

 day. It was in the former that Francis 

 Shirley, Esq., who died in 1571, is re- 

 corded to have passed most of his time, 

 ' with his horses, hounds, and deere in his 

 parke at Staunton, wherein he had great 

 delight'* The great park is still so called, 

 though divided into farms. Within its 

 precincts stands ' The Lodge,' an ancient 

 house moated round, formerly the resi- 

 dence of the keeper, and which I have 

 caused to be engraved as an appropriate 

 illustration to this work.* The present 

 park of Staunton-Harold contains about 

 129 acres, with a herd of 230 fallow-deer. 



Bagworth Park, reimparked by William 

 Lord Hastings in the year 1474, appears, 

 says Nichols, to have been of old times 

 very large and extensive. He estimates 

 the extent at 400 acres of land. In 1325 

 the abbot and convent of St. Mary de 

 Pratis applied to the king in Parliament 

 for the tithes of Bagworth Park,^ which in 



' Lei. Itin. vol. i. p. 23, fol. 24. 



' Nichols's Leicestershire, vol. iv. p. 782. 



" Stemmata Shirleiana, p. 50. 



' See p. 37 for the grant of ' Parkers hippe,' 



1622 was the inheritance of Sir Robert 

 Banaster, Knight, and was then ' in use,' 

 but has been long disparked. 



Bosworth Park contains 400 acres of 

 land, and a herd of about 250 fallow-deer, 

 all black. This park must be compara- 

 tively modern, not being marked either in 

 Saxton's or Speed's maps. 



Gopsall Park appears also to be mo- 

 dern, though said to have existed two 

 hundred years. It is a park of 500 acres, 

 with 264 fallow and 15 red-deer. 



On the borders of this county and 

 Northamptonshire is Holt, or Hoult as 

 Burton writes it, where was, in his time, 

 a disused park, enclosed by Thomas Pal- 

 mer, Esq., by license granted twenty-sixth 

 of Henry VI. North of this is Laund, 

 where was an ancient park marked in 

 Saxton's Survey, which appears to have 

 been granted by charter in the thirty- 

 second year of Henry III,, and which 

 grant was^ confirmed to the prior there, 

 by King Edward II., in the twenty-second 

 year of his reign." 



Further north is Cold-Overton, where 

 John de Segrave obtained license to make 

 a deer-leap (saltatorium), ' in parco suo de 

 Cold-Overton,' in the fourteenth year of 

 Edward III. 



In the hundred of Framland, in the north- 

 eastern angle of this county, is Croxton 

 Park, belonging to the Duke of Rutland. 

 It contains 570 acres, exclusive of planta- 

 tions and water, and a herd of 350 fallow- 

 deer ; and is enclosed with a stone wall. 

 Although not marked as a park in the 

 old maps, it has been supposed from an 



granted by George Shirley, Esq., in 1584. 

 * Nichols's Leicestershire, vol. iv. p. 989. 

 " Cal. Pat. Rolls, p. 326. 



