FORESTRY 



Ampthill Park (Duke of Bedford) is now of comparatively small area, but it is of great beauty 

 and includes some very grand old oak trees. Two of them have attained to a girth of 36ft. At 

 the garden front of the house is a singularly fine avenue of limes. The parks which were attached to 

 the manor and castle of Ampthill were in the hands of the crown early in the sixteenth century 

 and formed into an honour by Act of Parliament. Saxton's map of 1576 shows not only the great 

 park of Ampthill, but a cluster of eight smaller parks in the immediate neighbourhood. A Parlia- 

 mentary Survey of Ampthill Park taken in 1653 mentions 287 oaks as being hollow and unfit for 

 navy purposes.** Their very decay spared them for picturesque effect. Robert earl of Elgin in 

 May, 1664, obtained a grant from Charles II of 100 trees growing in Ampthill Park, in order to 

 impale some part of it for red deer.'° 



The park of Houghton Conquest, which is only separated from that of Ampthill by the 

 high road, was also formerly held under the crown. It was granted in fee to Lord Bruce 

 in 1630, and passed by purchase to the Bedford family in 1738. This was an ancient park, 

 and known for some time as Dame EUensbury Park. Eleanor Lady St. Amand held this 

 manor and park in dower in the time of Henry V, and in 14 15 petitioned Parliament against 

 Lord Grey of Ruthven for having violently broken into her park, destroyed hares and coneys, 

 and committed other outrages.'' 



Brogborough and Beckering, two small parks in Ridgmont parish, are both shown in the map 

 of 1576. The latter long ago disappeared ; the former is marked on the map that accompanies the 

 agricultural survey of 1808. 



On the north-western boundary of the county is the finely-wooded park surrounding Turvey 

 House, inclosing about 150 acres, and extending to the Ouse. It is doubtful, however, if this 

 park occupies any of the ground shown as Turvey Park in the 1576 map. As long ago as 1297 

 William Mordaunt obtained the royal licence to inclose a park at Turvey .*' 



The licensing of parks at Harrold, Carlton, and Wilden, in the north-west of the county, in 

 131 3, has already been mentioned. The site of the first of these lies about two miles in the north- 

 west of the little market town of Harrold, close to the Northamptonshire border, and is known as 

 Park Wood. Harrold Park is marked on both Saxton's and Speed's maps. 



Melchbourne Hall (Lord St. John), in the north of the county, is surrounded by a park and 

 woods of about 350 acres. About 12 acres have been recently planted with ash for use on the 

 estate. Here was a preceptory of the Knights Hospitallers ; Leland, writing of it in 1538, states 

 that it had ' goodly gardens, orchards, and ponds, and a parke thereby.' '* 



Moggerhanger Park (Col. Algernon Mercer), in Blunham parish, goes back to at least Elizabethan 

 days ; it is of no great size, but particularly picturesque and thickly wooded. 



Haynes Park (Francis John Thynne, esq.), about four miles to the east of Ampthill, is another 

 of the large parks of the county, embracing 521 acres, 3 roods, 5 poles ; but it has been divided into 

 several closes. It is finely timbered in parts. 



Southill Park (Samuel Whitbread, esq.), some four miles to the east of Haynes, is the third 

 largest park of the county, and remarkably well wooded. Its acreage is 92 1 acres, 3 roods, 13 poles ; of 

 which upwards of 300 acres is woodland and plantation. There has not been any serious planting within 

 the precincts of the park of late years, beyond a few ornamental trees, such as cedars, planes, 

 Douglas firs, and a few other coniferae. Immediately outside the park, namely on Rowney Great 

 Warren, locally known as 'The Plain,' a few acres of larch and Scotch fir have been planted. 

 A good attempt has been made to inclose the park with a holly fence in lieu of the present pale 

 fence ; a portion of this has been fairly well established. One of the remarkable features of the 

 park is the avenue of cedars which forms part of the carriage drive known as ' Cedar Drive.' 

 Several of these trees are of remarkably large dimensions, and are acknowledged to be amongst 

 the finest in the country. The following are the measurements of three : — 



Close to Luton, in the extreme south of the county, are two large parks. Luton Hoo Park 

 (F. Gerard Leigh, esq.), the second largest in the county, covers 1,670 acres ; its well-wooded area 

 is watered by the River Lea. To the west of the town is Stockwood Park (Francis Crawley, esq.), 



" Lysons, Beds. 39. " CaL S.P. Dom. 1663-4, P- 5^5 (5°)- 



'= Pari. R. iv, 92-3. " Collins, Peerage, iii, 310. 



" Lysons, Beds. 116. 



" From information kindly supplied by Mr. G. T. Fields-Clarke, Mr. Whitbread's agent. 



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