Ch. X. 



YORKSHIRE. 



217 



return to Coningsborough. Near this 

 house was a park of five hundred acres, 

 the memory of which is still retained in 

 the local nomenclature of the district. 

 This park was at all times well stocked 

 with deer, who were also to be seen roam- 

 ing at large through the whole limits of 

 the chase.' 



' When Edward Balliol, the Ex-king of 

 Scotland, was residing at Wheatley, he 

 amused himself with sporting on these 

 lands. There is a curious instrument in 

 the Fcedera, dated October 18, 1356, in 

 which a pardon is granted to him for the 

 slaughter he had committed. In the chase 

 he had killed 16 red deer, 6 hinds, 8 

 stags, 3 calves, and 6 kids, in the park ; 

 8 fallow-deer, one sour, and one sorell ; 

 in the ponds, 2 pike of 3| feet in length, 

 3 of 3 feet long, 20 of 2| feet, 20 of 2 feet, 

 50 pickerels of i| feet, 6 of I foot, 109 

 perch, roach, tench, skelys, and 6 breames 

 and bremettes." 



' When Henry VIII. made his northern 

 progress after the suppression of the Pil- 

 grimage of ^Grace, it was a part of his 

 plan to enjoy the diversion which Hatfield 

 could afford. The Earl of Southampton 

 wrote to the Earl of Shrewsbury, who 

 was Surveyor-General of the Chase, en- 

 closing warrants for taking twenty bucks, 

 from some other park I presume of the 

 king's, and conveying them to Hatfield 

 a day or two before the king's coming. 

 The Earl replied that he would provide 

 for the king's pleasure, but would spare 

 to use the warrants, and make up the 

 number of bucks out of his own grounds 

 at Sheffield, desiring at the same time 

 that the king might be moved to see his 



' Hunter's S. Yorkshire, vol. i. p. 135. 



^ Lei. Itin. vol. i. p. 38, foL 40. 



' 700, according to the Lambeth MSS. anno 



poor House at Winfield by the way. The 

 Earl, however, issued fourteen warrants 

 to the Regarders of Hatfield, to prepare 

 so many bucks, and repaired himself to 

 Bawtry to meet the king. This was in 

 August 1541.' 



About this period the antiquary Leland 

 visited Hatfield, of which his account is 

 as follows : ' From Doncaster to Heath- 

 feld by champagn sandy ground is 5 

 miles. There is a faire Paroch Chirch in 

 the village ; and a parke therby. The 

 Logge or Manor-place is but meanely 

 builded of Tymber. The quarters about 

 Heathfeld be forest ground, and though 

 wood be scars there, yet there is great 

 ■plentie of red Deere that haunt the fennes, 

 and the great mores thereabout.' ' 



The level of Hatfield Chase, containing 

 about 70,000 acres, was surveyed in 1607. 

 It is said that the red deer at that time 

 amounted to about 1,000;' but that the 

 herd was much impaired by the depreda- 

 tions of the borderers. In 1609, Henry 

 Prince of Wales is said to have been at 

 Hatfield, An account of his sport in the 

 Chase has been preserved.* This was 

 the last time that there was any royal 

 hunting here, the Chase having been dis- 

 parked and passed out of the Crown in 

 1629. 



At Cusworth^ very near Doncaster, is 

 an existing park belonging to Mr. Wright- 

 son. 



At Pontefract was an ancient park no- 

 ticed by Leland, containing 434 fallow- 

 deer in 1604,^ and near it a park called 

 Kridling, in the surveys of Saxton and. 

 Speed. 



Between Pontefract and Wakefield is 



1604. 

 * Hunter's South Yorkshire, vol. i. p. 156. 

 » Lambeth MSS. No. 709. 



