Ch. VII. 



WARWICKSHIRE. 



i6. 



Midleton. — 'I passed by Middleton 

 parke,' writes Leland in his ' Itinerary,' ' 

 'wherof S' John Willoughby, son and 

 heir to S' Henry Willoughby (an ould 

 knight of y« sepulchre), hath a fayre man- 

 nour-place.' This park, which is marked 

 both by Dugdale and Speed, is now, I 

 believe, disparked. 



Merevale. — A park here is marked in 

 Dugdale's map of 1656, and one is known 

 to have belonged to this place after it had 

 been granted to the Devereux family, 

 being mentioned in the will of Robert 

 second Earl of Essex. Of late years the 

 park has been restored by the present 

 owner, Mr. Dugdale, who brought the 

 deer, now about 120 in number, from 

 Bordesley in Worcestershire. The park 

 occupies about 180 acres. The oaks here 

 are remarkably fine. 



Pooley Park, in the parish of Poles- 

 worth, near Tamworth. Here was an 

 ancient park, enclosed by Sir Thomas 

 Cokain, Kt., ia the twenty-second of 

 Henry VII., who lies buried at Ashbourn 

 in Derbyshire, with the following inscrip- 

 tion : — 



- Here lyeth Sir Thomas Cockaine, 

 Made knight at Turney and Turwyne ; 

 Who builded here fayre houses twayne, 

 With many profittes that remayne ; 

 And three fayre parks impaled he, 

 For his successors here to be. ' ^ 



' Vol. iv. p. 123, fol. 190 a. 

 ' Ashbourn and the Valley of the Dove, 8vo. 

 1839, p. 64. 



Dugdale' gives this inscription some- 

 what differently : — 



' Three goodly houses he did build, to his 



great praise and fame, 

 With profits great and manifold belonging 



to the same. 

 Three parks he did impale, therein to chase 



the Deere, 

 The lofty lodge within this park he also 



builded here. ' * 



When Pooley Park was disparked I 

 have not discovered, but it was probably 

 early in the seventeenth century, as Dug- 

 dale mentions that in his time the Cockain 

 family ' seldom dwelt at this place.' 



List of existing Deer Parks in the County 

 of Warwick. 



r. Wedgenock . 



2. Grove Park . 



3. Stoneley . . 



4. Shuckburgh. 



5. Charlecote . 



6. Eatington . 



7. Ragley. . . 



8. Clopton . . 



9. Maxtoke . . 



10. Packington . 



11. Arbury . . 



12. Merevale 



Earl of Warwick. 

 Lord Dormer. 

 Lord Leigh. 

 Sir Francis Shuck- 

 burgh, Bart. 

 Mr. Lucy. 

 Mr. Shirley. 

 Marquis of Hertford. 

 Late Mr. Warde. 

 Mr. Dilke. 

 Earl of Aylesford. 

 Mr. Newdigate. 

 Mt Dugdale. 



' Dugdale, vol. ii. p. Iiai. 

 ' This must be Ashbourn, where a park is 

 marked in Saxton's Map of 1577. 



M 



