222 



DEER AND DEER PARKS. 



Ch. X, 



YORKSHIRE. NORTH RIDING. 



Although the North Riding of York- 

 shire is much less in extent than the West 

 Riding, yet about an equal number of 

 parks in both, appear to be marked in 

 Saxton's Survey of the county, engraved 

 in 1577. The greater number of these 

 parks were grouped near the towns of 

 Middleham, Masham, and Thirsk ; south 

 of Richmond and North AUerton. Those 

 near the first mentioned place are thus 

 noticed in Leland's 'Itinerary:' 'There 

 be 4 or 5 parks about Middleham, and 

 longing to it, whereof som be reasonably 

 wooddyd." Saxton preserves the names 

 of three of them, ' Woodhall Park,' ' Wan- 

 las Park,' and Capilbank Park.' Another 

 in the same neighbourhood is also noticed 

 by Leland: ' There is a parke wauUyd 

 with stone at Bolton.'^ An ancient park 

 is also recorded by Saxton at Constable- 

 Burton, a little to the north of Middleham, 

 which appears to have been enclosed by 

 license granted to Walter le Scroop in the 

 twelfth of Edward III.' There were deer 

 here in 1714,' when it belonged to Sir 

 Marmaduke Wyvill, Bart. North of 

 Bedal is Hornby Castle, where there has 

 been long an ancient park, given in the 

 older surveys; and to the south of that 

 town five parks, of which the principal 

 were Snape, and Tanfield, are also found 

 in a group near the town of Masham. 

 Leland describes ' Snape a goodly Castel 

 in a Valley longing to the Lorde Latimer, 



' Itin. vol. viii. pp. 18, 19, fol. 66. 

 2 Cal. Pat. Rolls, p. 133. 

 ' Kip's Views. 



and ii or iii parkes welle woddid abowt 

 hit. It is his chefe Howse and standith a 

 ii mile from Great Tanfeld.' Of the latter 

 he says: ' Tanfield village, a castell of 

 the Lord Parrs, and a great woody 

 parke.'* 



South of Masham is the cornparatively 

 modern park of Sivinton, enclosed about 

 the middle of the seventeenth century, 

 and containing 80 acres, and a herd of 

 200 spotted deer. 



Nearer Ripon were the parks of Norton- 

 Cony ers, axiANewby. the latter appears to 

 have been imparked by a license granted 

 to Sir William Robinson in 1634-5, which 

 permitted the enclosure of 150 acres of his 

 demesne lands of his Manor of Newby, 

 with liberty of free warren.* 



The group of parks about Thirsk com- 

 prehended those of Topclyf &V1A Catton, 

 which belonged to the Earls of Northum- 

 berland. It appears by the Household 

 Book of that noble family, that there were 

 in the year 1512, 558 fallow-deer in the 

 great park of Topclyf, and 291 in the little 

 park at the same place ; while at Catton 

 there were but 79 fallow-deer ; Leland, 

 mentioning the two parks at Topclyf, tells 

 us that ' the bigger is a 6 or 7 miles in 

 cumpace and is well wooddid.' ' At 

 Tresk' {Thirsk), he adds, 'was a great 

 castil of the Lord Mowbreys, and there is 

 a Park with prety wood about it.'° 



On the western confines of the forest of 



* Itin. vol. v. p. I i7,fol. 1 14, pp. i2o-i,fol. 115. 

 ' Cal. S. Papers I3omestic. p. 523. 

 " Lei. Itin. vol. i. p. 69, fol. 75. 



