Ch. IX. 



CHESHIRE. 



207 



morial, and is supposed indigenous. In 

 the last century a custom was observed 

 here of driving the Red Deer round the 

 park, about Midsummer or rather eariier, 

 collecting them in a body^before the house, 

 and then swimming them through a pool 

 of water, with which the exhibition ter- 

 minated. There is a large print of it by 

 Vivares, after a painting by T. Smith, 

 representing Lyme Park during the per- 

 formance of the annual ceremony, with 

 the great vale of Cheshire and Lancashire 

 as far as the Rivington HiUs in the dis- 

 tance, and in the foreground the great 

 body of the deer passing through the 

 pool, the last just entering it, and the old 

 stags emerging on the opposite bank, two 

 of which are contending with their fore- 

 feet, the horns at that season being too 

 tender to combat with ; this 'art of driving 

 the deer,' like a herd of ordinary cattle, is 

 stated on a monument at Disley to have 

 been first perfected by Joseph Watson, 

 who died in 1753, at the age of 104, 

 ' having been park-keeper at Lyme more 

 than sixty-four years.' The custom, how- 

 ever, appears not to have been peculiar to 

 Lyme, as Dr. Whitaker observes in his 

 account of Townley (the seat of a colla- 

 teral line of Legh, in the county of Lan- 

 caster).* It is said of this Joseph Watson 

 that he once undertook at the bidding of 

 his master to drive twelve brace of stags 

 to Windsor Forest, for a wager of 500 

 guineas, which he performed accord- 

 ingly. This was in the reign of Queen 

 Anne.° 



' At Poynton is a parke,' writes Leland ; 

 and again, ' The auncienter House long- 

 ging to Warines, was Poynton yn the 



' Ormerod's Cheshire, vol. ii. p. 339. 

 '^ See the Reliquary, vol. ii. p. 246. 

 ' Itin. vol. vii. p. 30, fol. 40. 



mydle way, betwixt Stopford (Stockfort) 

 and Mexwell Towne ' (Macclesfield).' 



There appear to have been deer at one 

 time at Alder ley, the seat of Lord Stanley, 

 of that place, as ' The Park House ' is men- 

 tioned, but there are no deer at present.* 



In Northwich Hundred were the parks 

 of Kinderton and Brereton. The former 

 belonged to the Venables family, called 

 Barons of Kinderton, and the latter to the 

 ancient family who took their name from 

 hence. The ancient park at Brereton, 

 which has been long disparked, was situ- 

 ated north of the Hall. 



One ancient park alone is marked in 

 Speed's map of this county, and none in 

 Saxton's, within the hundred of Nantwich, 

 at Wrenbury, on the river Wever, not far 

 from Combermere. It is thus noticed by 

 Leland : ' Starkey, the auncients of that 

 stokke, dwellith at Wenbyri, a mile and a 

 half from Cumbermare ; there is a parke 

 ful of marvelus faire wood, but no Dere.' ^ 

 ' In imitation of their local sovereigns,' 

 Ormerod remarks, 'the Barons of Nant- 

 wich formed a forest within the district of 

 Nantwich, on the banks of the Weever, 

 which is noticed by the name of the forest 

 of Couhul, in the Charters of Hugh and 

 William Melbank to their Abbey of Com- 

 bermere, with reference to this forest, 

 from which the township of Coole appears 

 to derive its name ; they resei-ve ^^cervum 

 cervam et aprwn," in their grants to the 

 monks of the adjacent abbey." Five 

 miles south-east of Nantwich is Dodding- 

 ton, an extensive park, containing both 

 red and fallow-deer. 



More to the east, in the parish of Mal- 

 pas, in Broxton Hundred, is Cholmondeley 



* Ormerod, vol. iii. p. 301. 



* Itin. vol. vii. p. 34, fol. 43. 



° Onnerod, vol. iii. p. 150, note. 



