Henry VIII., Elizabeth, and James I. were all devoted to the chase of the
Red and Fallow Deer, but there seems to have been a decline in the number of
Deer parks between the reigns of Elizabeth and Charles I. During the great
Civil War many parks were destroyed, the Deer were driven out or killed, the
King's parks suffering among the rest. At the Restoration, however, a few of
the old parks were restocked and a large number of new a
most of those existing to-day were stocked and formed M
At the Conquest the King of England possessed eight
His Majesty Edward VII. is the owner of four, namely, \
Cranbourne), Richmond, Bushey, and Greenwich. The
only subject who has so many deer parks as th<
i came into existence;
his time.
&©r parks, and to-day
tlKso j (which includes
ike oi Devonshire is
ttjvereijjn. He owns
orth, Har Bolton, and Holker, and about fifteen other , own
i than one. In 1867 Mr. Evelyn Shirley described1 334 parks as then
lining Deer. To this number Mr. J. Whitaker has added3 fifty more,
h had either been omitted by Mr. Shirley or had come into existence
ltly. The largest park in England is Savernake, which is over four thousand
; in extent. The Deer are practically unrestrained, and why they do not
ler over the surrounding' country and damage crops I could never understand,
a schoolboy I spent much of my time in these woods, and remember
tg Deer near the edge of the forest. Next in size come Fridge,
wsley, Tatton, Duncombe, Blenheim, and Buckhurst, which an- aii over two
sand acres. There are Red Deer in eighty-six Bnyii-'
In the days of Charles II. the country north <A Nottinghamshire was still
red with great forests in which many Red Burn were found. Even in the
h of England there were considerable herds *» Epping, St. Leonard’s, Woolmer,3
toor, Cornwall, and the New Forest. In most of these they remained until the
ming of the mneteenth century. In the Royal Forest of Need wood in Stafford-
beginning of the 1»
shire they existed
supposed to have b
reign large number1
Blackburn in Lancashire, Wenslevdafe i
Northumberland, and Westmorland, -xh
Fells. Until recently they existed at V )
nineteenth century, but in Worcestershire they ar<
ic sstiBCt during the Civil Wars (Halting). In Charles II.’<
Red Dew still existed in the great forests of Bowland and
1 Account o f English Deer Parks, by Evelyn Philip Shirt
4 A Descriptive L ist o f the Deer Parks and Paddocks o f
* Gilbert White (pp. 21, 22) tells us ti^at Red Dee
Woohner Forest for the amusement of Queen Anne.
fcshire, and throughout Cumberland,
few still survive on the Martindale
in the same county (Harting). From
f, by J. Whitaker, 1892.
to the number of five hundred were driven alone the Vale in