Ch. X. 



LANCASHIRE. 



215 



At present it contains about 200 acres 

 including woods, and from 100 to 130 

 fallow-deer. To the south is Knowesley, 

 the magnificent seat of the Earl of Derby, 

 and the largest, park in the county; it 

 was described in 1776 as 'having a fine 

 variety of ground, and good covert for the 

 deer." Leland merely says, ' KnoUesley 

 a park having a pretty House of the Erles 

 of Derby within a mile of Prestcod.' 

 Knowesley Park is an area of 2,000 acres 

 including some young plantations, con- 

 taining 300 fallow and as many red deer. 

 ,It was enclosed by Sir Thomas de 

 Lathomby license granted by Edward III. 

 in the year 1348. Two other parks given by 

 Saxton remain to be mentioned — Croxteth 

 and Tocksteth; the first near Knowesley, 



the last near Liverpool. Leland obsei-ves 

 of the former, that it was ' a parke of the 

 Kinges hard by Molineux's House,' ^ and 

 I find it noticed in the thirty-third of 

 Edward III. as ' parcus deCroxtath super 

 le mosse deLeverpole.'^ Toxteth belonged 

 to the Duchy of Lancaster. 



Existing Deer Parks in Lancashire. 



Knowesley 

 Lathom . . 



ASHTON . . 



Trafford . 



5. HOLKER 



The Earl of Derby. 



Lord Skelmersdale.. 



Mr. Starkie. 



Sir Humphrey Traf- 

 ford, Bart. 



The Duke of Devon- 

 shire. 



YORKSHIRE. WEST RIDING. 



Hunter, in his valuable Histories of 

 Hallamshire and South Yorkshire, has 

 given many interestmg notices of some 

 of the numerous deer parks of the West 

 Riding. We will begin with his account 

 of the great park of Sheffield, at the 

 southern extremity of the great county. 

 ' This park, according to Harrison's sur- 

 vey made in 1637, contained 2,461 acres, 

 3 roods, and 1 1 perches, all within a ring 

 fence of eight miles. This was the park 

 of the Lords of the Manor of Sheffield. 

 It was a park by prescription, at least no 

 royal charter can now be produced for 



' Beauties of England, vol. ii. p. 205. 

 ' Leland's Itin. vol. vii. p. 48, fol. 36. 

 " Cal. Pat. Rolls, p. 170. 



converting this fine tract of land to the 

 purposes of a park. Dodsworth* has pre- 

 served the memory of a singular and in- 

 deed a savage custom of which this park 

 was fonnerly the scene. In the topo- 

 graphical notes which he made at Shef- 

 field in 1620, he writes that " the late Gil- 

 bert Earl of Shrewsbury was wont on 

 every year on a certain day to have many 

 bucks lodged in a meadow near the town- 

 side, about a mile in compass, to which 

 place repaired almost all the men of the 

 parish, and had liberty to kill and carry 

 away as many as they could with their 



* Dodsworth's MSS. in Bibl. Bodl. vol. clx. 

 f. 132*. 



