192 



DEER AND DEER PARKS. 



Ch. IX. 



byri, and hathe a fayr place there in the 

 syde of Sodbyri high hill, and a parke.' ' 

 Three other ancient parks, two- of them 

 still existing, are noticed also by Leland 

 in this neighbourhood : those of Acton, 

 Dyrham, and Badminton ; the latter since 

 the destruction of Ragland Castle in the 

 great Civil Wars, the well-known and 

 principal seat of the Dukes of Beaufort. 

 Of Acton (Iron Acton) Leland observes, 

 ' There is a goodly House and 2 parks by 

 the House, one of Redde Dere, an other 

 of Fallow,' and of Dyrham, ' from Cother- 

 ington to Derham, a mile and a halfe of, 

 where master Dionise dwellithe, havinge 

 a fair Howse of achelei stones, and a 

 parke.'* The ' meane,' that is moderate, 

 ' manor place and park of Badminton," 

 in Leland's tin<e belonged to the Boteler 

 family. A curious view of this magnifi- 

 cent place is given in Kip's ' Views of 

 Seats,' engraved in 17 14. The whole 

 country was at that time laid out in 

 straight avenues of trees, intersecting 

 each other, most of them meeting in a 

 single tree or ' standing ' near the house. 

 No less than five parks were at that time 

 kept up at Badminton, distinguished as 

 ' The Virginia Deere Parke, The East In- 

 dia Deere Parke, The Fallow Deere Parke, 

 The Red Deere Parke, The Great Parke.' 



At present the park contains 971 acres, 

 with a herd of 300 red, and 1,200 fallow- 

 deer. 



The forest or chase of Kingswood oc- 

 cupied the southern extremity of the 

 county near the city of Bristol. In Sax- 

 ton's ' Survey of Gloucestershire' (1577), 

 a park is marked adjoining it at Stoke. 



* Leland's Itin. vol. vii. p. 97, fol. 720. 



^ Itin. vol. yii. p. 97, fol. 720, and loi, 



fol. 74*. 



' Ibid. vol. vi. p. 73, fol. 76. 



Here, we are told in Smyth's ' Lives of 

 the Berkeleys,'* ' that the people, war- 

 likely arrayed, made an attack upon S'. 

 Maurice Berkeley's park, recently enclosed 

 from the Common.' This was in the 

 reign of Edward III. 



A few miles to the north is Thornbury 

 Castle, once the seat of the great House 

 of Stafford Dukes of Buckingham.. Here 

 was a park of which Leland observes, 

 ' Edward Duke of Bukkyngham made a 

 fayre parke hard by the Castle, and tooke 

 much faire ground in it very frutefuU of 

 corne, now fayr launds for coursynge. 

 The Inhabitaunts cursyd the Duke for 

 ther lands so inclosyd. There was a parke 

 by the. Manor of Thornbyry afore, and 

 yet is cauHyd Morlewodde. There was 

 also afore Duke Edward's tyme a parke 

 at Estewood a myle or more of : But 

 Duke Edward at 2 tymes enlarged it_to 

 the compass of 6 myles not without many 

 curses of the poore Tenaunts.'* This park 

 must have been destroyed before the 

 Elizabethan period, as it is not given in 

 Saxton's Survey. It was enclosed by Gil- 

 bert de Clare Earl of Gloucester and 

 Hereford in the ninth year of Edward I." 



There is an existing park at Knowle, 

 south of Thornbury, belonging to Colonel 

 Master, and one also at Tortworth, a little 

 to the east, the seat of the Earl of 'Ducie. 



To the north is Berkeley, the baronial 

 castle of the great Norman house of that 

 name, and which once arrogated to itself 

 two chases, Micklewood and Redwood, 

 and no less than twelve attendant parks. 

 These, according to Rudder in his ' His- 

 tory of Gloucestershire,' were the Castle 



* P. 121. 



" Leland's Itin. vol. vii. p. 102, fol. 73 a. . 



° Cal. Pat. Rolls, p. 49. 



