Ch. VIII. 



S TA FFORDSHIRE, 



177 



The father of the present owner disparked 

 it, but there is a probability that it will 

 shortly be restored. 



At Dunstall, the seat of Mr. Hardy, a 

 small park or paddock of deer has lately 

 been enclosed. 



At Sinai Park, near Burton, the Pagets 

 had a deer park in 1660 and in 173 J, and 

 there were deer at Loxley, the seat of the 

 Kinnersley family, between Needwood 

 and Chartley, at the same period,' and 

 according to Neale, in his ' Views of Seats,' 

 in 1821. 



Of the early history of the wild and 

 historical park of Chartley, which lies still 

 farther to the west of the Forest of Need- 

 wood, we know but little. Originally en- 

 closed by the great House of Ferrers, it 

 is said that the breed of wild cattle still 

 preserved here were driven into the park 

 from the forest in thereignof Henry III.^ 

 The wild cattle of Chartley are, like those 

 of Cravenj Chillingham, and Lyme Park 

 in Cheshire, of a white, or rather cream 

 colour, but they differ from them in some 

 minute particulars ; for instance, the Cra- 

 ven cattle are destitute of horns, while 

 those at Chartley have sharp horns, the 

 points of which, together with their ears, 

 are tipped with black ; those of Chilling- 

 ham and Lyme have similar horns, but 

 their ears are red. The size of all these 

 varieties is rather below that of the com- 

 mon breed of cows. It is the opinion of 

 Professor Owen that they are descended 

 from domestic cattle introduced by the 

 Romans, which subsequently became half 

 wild from breeding together for many 

 years in an unreclaimed state ; and, in a 



' List of Parks by R. Wilkes, quoted in 

 Shaw's Staffordshire, vol. i. p. xxiv. 

 ^ Mosley's Hist, of Tutbury, p. 12. 



similar way, the numerous herds of wild 

 Cattle in South America owe their origin 

 to the tame ones originally imported into 

 that country by Europeans.' Leland, in 

 his ' Itinerary,' notices ' the mighty large 

 park' of Chartley, and Erdeswick, in his 

 survey of this county, observes of it : — 

 ' The park is very large, and hath therein 

 red-deer, fallow-deer, wild beasts, and 

 swine.' Wild beasts, it may be necessary 

 to remark, is still the local name for the 

 wild cattle, about twenty in number. The 

 wild swine have long disappeared, but in 

 an account-book of the steward of the 

 manor as late as 1683-4, I find the fol- 

 lowing item :— ' P'' the cooper for a paile 

 for y« wild swine 2».' The extent of 

 Chartley Park is about 900 acres of heathy 

 land in a wild and uncultivated state. 

 Here is a herd of about 300 red and fal- 

 low-deer, but little fine timber. The 

 ancient oaks are represented as dead, in 

 the map in Plot's ' History of Stafford- 

 shire,' printed in 1686. 



A little to the north of Chartley, Saxton 

 marks a park at Birchwood: this origi- 

 nally belonged to the Aston family, and 

 in Sir Symon Degge's time to Mr. Goring. 

 There were deer in it at the period of the 

 Civil Wars, but it has been long dis- 

 parked. 



Above Birchwood was Paynsley Park, 

 on the banks of the Blyth, the ancient 

 seat of the Draycotes : disparked before 

 the time of Sir S. Degge. 



Passing to the north-eastern quarter of 

 the county, on the borders of Derbyshire, 

 parks are marked by Saxton both at 

 Craxden and at Alton ; the one an abbey 



' Mosley and Brown's Natural History of 

 Tutbury, p. 16. 



N 



