194 



DEER AND DEER PARKS. 



Ch. IX. 



reign of Charles II., Sir William Ducy 

 having obtained a license for enclosing it 

 in the year i66i.^ 



Uley Park, mentioned above, appears 

 to have been identical with Weoly Park, 

 of which Smyth relates that, being in the 

 king's hands in right of Roger de Somery 

 his ward, Maurice the second Lord Berke- 

 ley killed two bucks here, and was con- 

 sequently fined 5/.* 



At Newark, near Wooton-under-Edge, 

 there was a deer park which has been 

 only lately disused. 



Between Tetbury and Cirencester is 

 Cherington. Here is a small park of 

 about 78 acres, with a herd of 65 fallow- 

 deer. It has been imparked ' beyond the 

 memory of the oldest inhabitant,' but is 

 not noticed in the surveys of Saxton or 

 Speed. 



Near Cirencester is Oakley Par k,hAcir\g- 

 ingto Lord Bathurst^ containing about 300 

 acres and 550 fallow-deer of all the varie- 

 ties. A plan of this fine park is given in 

 Rudder's history of this county, printed 

 in 1 779, when it was ' well stocked with 

 deer.' 



There are existing parks <s\.'s,oz!!.Ampney, 

 Williamstrip, Barnsley, and Fairford, 

 places to the east of Cirencester ; and at 

 Miserden and Rendcomb, ancient parks to 

 the north of that town. The former is 

 described, in 1779, as being about seven 

 miles in circuit, and full of fine beech- 

 wood. 



East of Northleach is Sherborne. 

 ' There are two parks belonging to this 

 seat,' according to Rudder ; ' one adjoin- 

 ing to the house ; the other lies at a little 

 distance from it, with a beautiful lodge 

 house, and a paddock-course near it.' 



' Rudder, p. 397. 



' Lives of the Berkeleys, p. 84. 



The park at Sherborne at present con- 

 sists of 350 acres, with 280 fallow-deer. 



Not far from Sherborne, on the edge of 

 Oxfordshire, is Barrington. Here was a 

 deer park in 171 7, as we find by a view of 

 the place in Kip's ' Views of Seats.' Sher- 

 borne is also represented as a deer park 

 in the same work. 



In the north-eastern district of Glouces- 

 tershire, adjoining an outlying part of 

 Worcestershire, is Batsford. Here is a 

 small but beautiful and well-ordered park 

 of about 95 acres, with a herd of 200 

 fallow-deer. It has been enclosed about 

 150 years. 



Still further north, on the borders of 

 Warwickshire, is Alscot, in the parish of 

 Preston-upon-Stour. Here is a park con- 

 taining 220 acres and 120 fallow-deer. It 

 has existed upwards of a century, and is 

 thus mentioned in Rudder's ' History' :' 

 ' At this place I saw a natural curiosity ; 

 it was the skulls of two stags [he means 

 probably bucks] with their horns so en- 

 tangled by the animals' fighting in the 

 Park when alive, that they could never 

 disengage themselves, and so perished- 

 with hunger. They now remain not to 

 be separated by human force, without cut- 

 ting or breaking some part of them.' 

 These horns are no longer preserved at 

 Alscot. 



Near Winchcomb is Sudeley Castle, 

 where, in the Elizabethan period, was a 

 very extensive park, which has been long 

 since disused and thrown open. It is 

 thus noticed in Leland's ' Itinerary ' : 

 ' There runneth a praty lake out of Sude- 



ey parke Towne by the Castle, and run- 

 neth into Esseburne brooke, at the south 

 syde of Winchcombe.'* 



« P. 608. 



* Itin. vol. iv. p. 76, fol. 169. 



