1.5 J 



DEER AND DEER PARKS. 



Ch. VII. 



present park contains 436 acres, the deer, 

 20Q in number, occupy but 200 acres ; 

 they are fallow-deer, both dark and light. 

 Eatington Park is, for the midland coun- 

 ties, wild and romantic in its character, 

 and celebrated for its ancient hawthorns. 

 The doe venison is thought to be particu- 

 larly good. 



Compton Verney. — There is said to have 

 been a park here in former times. In 

 1647, two deer were stolen from the park 

 of Sir Grevii Verney.' It has been long 

 disparked. 



At Honington, the seat of the Townsend 

 family, was a small park or paddock, as 

 appears by Buck's print of the house in 

 1731. The old lodge, built in James II. 's 

 time, still remains. 



Barlichway Hundred contains the parks 

 oiFulbroke, Clapton, Ragley, Beauchamps 

 Court, Coughton, Skilts, and Lapworth ; 

 and also Beldesert, Grove Park, and 

 Haseley, which have been already de- 

 scribed. 



Of Fulbroke Leland, in his ' Itinerary,' 

 writes as follows, — 'I roade from War- 

 wick to Bereford (Barford) Bridge of 8 

 arches, a 2 miles of Warwicke. Here I 

 sawe half a mile lower upon Avon on the 

 right side, a fayre parke called Fulbroke. 

 In this park was a praty castle made of 

 stone and bricks, and as one tould mee, a 

 Duke of Bedford laye in it. There is a 

 litle lodge or piece of building in this 

 parke called Bergeiney, made, as I con- 

 jecture, by some Lord or Lady Bergeiney 

 (Bergavenny). This castle of Fulbroke 



' Halliwell's Historical Account of The 

 New Place, Stratford-on-Avon, Fo. London, 

 1864, p. 117. 



2 Leland's Itin. vol. iv. p. 68, fol. 166 b, 



' In anno 1432,' 



was an eyesore to the Earles that lay in 

 Warwick Castle, and was cause of dis- 

 pleasure betweene each Lord. Sir Wil- 

 liam Compton, keeper of Fulbroke parke 

 and castle, seeing it_go to ruine helped, it 

 forward, takinge part of it (as some saye) 

 for the buildinge of his house at Compton 

 by Braifes in Warwickshire, and gave or 

 permitted others to take pieces of it 

 downe.' ^ Rous, in his ' History of the 

 Kings of England,' also refers to this 

 place as ' imparked by John Duke of Bed- 

 ford,^ brother of Henry V.,' and to ' the 

 sumptuous gate below the pales of the 

 park, built by Joan, Lady Bergavenny, 

 and proceeds to lament the insecure state 

 of the roads in consequence of the dark- 

 ness of the way by the hedges and pales 

 become 'a shelter for robbers.'* Ful- 

 broke, in the reign of Elizabeth, was held 

 in capite from the Crown by Sir Francis 

 Englefield, and was purchased by Sir 

 Thomas Lucy from his nephew in 1615. 

 ' He renewed the park, and- by the ad- 

 dition of Hampton Woods thereto, en- 

 larged it much.'* It was during the time 

 that Fulbroke belonged to, or rather had 

 been forfeited by, Sir Francis Englefield, 

 that it has been supposed by Mr. Bjace- 

 bridge in his ' Shakespeare no Deer- 

 stealer,'^ that the celebrated incident oc- 

 curred which has connected the name of 

 Lucy with that of the great dramatist, and 

 to which I must refer the reader. The 

 following graceful description of the site, 

 of the ancient Park of Fulbroke is by the 

 same author : — ' On the right of the road 



* Rous's Hist. Reg. Anglise, ed. 1745, p. 

 123. 



* Dugdale, vol. ii. p. 668. 

 " 8vo, London, 1862. 



