CHAPTER XI 



PAKK TIMBER 



However weak the majority of English estates may be 

 as regards examples of economic forestry, there is little 

 question about their abUity to show picturesque park scenery, 

 and the finest effects which the art of the landscape gardener 

 can produce. Originally, no doubt, parks were formed and 

 maintained for the purpose of fencing in the beasts of the 

 chase, such as deer, and thus rendering it possible for the 

 Norman baron or bishop to enjoy, on a small scale, the sport 

 afforded by the more extensive forests of the king. They 

 were also used as a kind of paddock for breeding and feeding 

 the deer destined for the venison pasties so esteemed at the 

 tables of the great, and in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle frequent 

 mention is made of the " deer-fold " — usually that of a 

 bishop, as that of Peterboro'. A few parks are supposed 

 to have existed in Saxon times, and amongst these have 

 been mentioned Eridge, Eastwell, Blenheim, and Knowsley. 

 Enclosures for wild animals are frequently mentioned in 

 Domesday, and although no precise description of them 

 exists, the natural inference is that they were simply tracts 

 of the waste or forest fenced round to keep in the larger 

 game. But before the Conquest it is not probable that parka 

 existed on a large scale, or in great numbers. The Saxon 

 Thanes, fond as they were of sport, preferred to take it under 

 natural conditions, and that conversion of the " folc land " into 

 " lords demesne " had not proceeded to any great extent under 

 their rule. It is rather to the Normans and Plantagenets 

 that we must attribute the chief extension of parks, and 

 which laid the foundation for their general distribution over 

 the face of England. That this is so, is proved by the 



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