ENGLISH DEER PARKS. 157 



hunting them, and of the sport enjoyed by our kings and their 

 retainers in by-gone days. 



The records of the reigns of Elizabeth and James I. furnish 

 many illustrations of the kind, from which a judicious selection 

 might be made. 



To the information which Mr. Shirley has collected in regard 

 to the deer parks of England many additions might be made. 

 To take an example, it will be found that his description of the 

 parks in Hertfordshire occupies two and a half pages (pp. 79 — 81), 

 in which he enumerates but six existing parks and twenty-six 

 which have been disparked. When preparing some years ago an 

 account of the Hertfordshire Deer Parks, which has been since 

 printed in the * Transactions of the Hertfordshire Nat. Hist. Soc.' 

 (vol. ii. pp. 97 — 110), I was enabled to give particulars of ten 

 existing parks and thirty-four disparked ones, — no inconsiderable 

 addition for one county, to say nothing of the historical details 

 furnished in each case. This is only mentioned here for the 

 purpose of showing that if time were not wanting for the careful 

 examination of county histories, court rolls, surveys, and other 

 documentary evidence, Mr. Shirley's work might be considerably 

 improved. 



In many places some interesting additions might be made. 

 I do not find any mention of Whitfield Park on the borders of 

 Cumberland, where they used to show a hawthorn tree against 

 which the heads of a stag and hound were formerly nailed up in 

 memory of a famous chase. It seems that the hound singly 

 chased a stag from this park, as far as the Red Kirk in Scotland, 

 which is said to be sixty miles distant, and back again to the 

 same place ; where, being both spent, the stag, making his last 

 effort, leaped the park pales and died on the inside : the hound, 

 attempting to leap after him, had not strength enough to get over, 

 but fell back and died on the outside just opposite. The heads 

 of both were nailed upon the tree, and underneath this distich : — 



" Hercules killed Hart o' Grease, 

 And Hart o' Grease killed Hercules." 



It is somewhat remarkable that in his notice (p. 135) of 

 Ditchley Park, near Woodstock in Oxfordshire, Mr. Shirley has 

 made no mention of the ancient deer heads belonging to animals 

 killed by James I., which are still preserved there, each bearing 



