the businesse bee doun the better." ' The portion of the park between the Court and the Marlow Road (formerly called Fawley Lane) is still called ' The Lawn,' as Mr. Mackenzie informs me, a term used of parts of deer parks.
Langley Park. Red deer were introduced into the old-established deer park about the sixties or early seventies by the late Sir Robert Bateson Harvey, bart., father of Sir Robert G. Harvey the present owner, whom I have to thank for information. They were purchased by him at Whittlebury (just over the borders of the county in Northamptonshire, adjoining Lillingstone Lovell), when that property was sold at the death of Lord Southampton. Twenty-five animals were brought here, and another twenty-five were purchased by the late Mr. Coleman, then owner of Stoke Park, and introduced there. The late Sir Robert Harvey also bought (elsewhere) some white red deer, of the same strain as those at Windsor and Welbeck, which are believed to have origin- ally come to England from a royal park in Denmark. In 1887 the present Sir Robert Harvey killed off all the normally-coloured red deer, leaving only the white specimens. Hinds still occasionally throw red calves, but they never now throw one of intermediate colour. At the present time they number about seventy, and all are white. The best white stag once had twenty-three points. Sir Robert Harvey has recently considerably reduced the herds in the park. There are also fallow deer, about forty Japanese deer, which came from Sir Victor Brooke's park, Colebrook (where they were introduced by him and Lord Powers- court from Japan) ; and a flock of (so-called) St. Kilda four-horned black sheep. The ground accessible to the deer comprises 383 acres.
Stoke Park, Stoke Pages.— Mr. W. Bryant, the owner, kindly informs me that the park contains about 100 red deer and comprises 500 acres. Sir Robert Harvey has kindly informed me that though this has been a deer park from time immemorial, red deer were added only some forty years ago by Mr. Cole- man, the then owner, being obtained from Whittlebury in Northants. Shirley [1] states that Sir John de Molins obtained licence from Edward III. to empark his woods here [2] in 1337, having in 1331 obtained permission to embattle his houses here and at Ditton.
Stowe Park.The manor belonged to Ose- ney Abbey until the dissolution of monasteries, and no deer seem to have been kept here until about 1651, when, according to Browne Willis,[3] Sir Peter Temple ' enclosed a Park on the disparking of Wicken Park, Co. Northampton, by the Lord Spencer, the Deer of which he bought.' Whitaker gives the number of red deer as twenty.
32. Fallow Deer. Cervus dama, Linn.
Probably not indigenous to Great Britain ; and only occurring in Bucks in seven parks.
Ashridge.In addition to red deer, Mr. Whitaker stated the number of fallow deer (1892) as 300.
Biddlesden Park. The fallow deer, accord- ing to Whitaker (1892) numbered 160. He states that this is the ancient deer park of the Cistercian Abbey which existed here, dating from 112O.[4]Extent about 150 acres.
Fawley Court Park. In addition to red deer, forty to fifty Japanese deer and three Axis deer, contains about sixty to eighty fal- low deer. The species was introduced by Mr. Mackenzie about 1881. The fallow deer here include both the brown and the spotted varieties.
Langley Park.In addition to red deer, about forty Japanese deer,[5] and a flock of so- called S. Kilda four-horned black sheep, con- tains at the present time about forty fallow deer, the number having been recently re- duced. Whitaker (in 1892) gives the num- ber of fallow deer as about eighty. On visiting this park, by kind permission of Sir Robert Harvey, in April 1903, 1 saw five of this species quite white, and three or four others very light coloured. This was a royal park until sold by Charles I. to Sir John Kederminster in 1626. This park is mentioned in a deed quoted by Lipscomb dated 1523; and ' the bucks and does therein,' i.e. fallow deer, are mentioned in 1551, when Edward VI. gave this manor and park to his sister the princess Elizabeth. In an MS. in the British Museum written by J. Norden, Surveyor of the Woods to James I., [6] this park is alluded to as ' Lang- ley Parke, . . . whereof M. Edmond Keder- minster is keper, hath about 1 40 fallow deere, about 35 of antler, about 14 buckes.' ' Deer of antler ' would mean the young males, the ' buckes ' being only those of four years and upwards.
- ↑ Account of English Deer-Parks (1867).
- ↑ Lipscomb however (iv. 545 and i. 288) states that it was his woods in Ilmer that Sir John then obtained licence to empark, with 100 acres in Beaconsfield, Burnham and Cippenham.
- ↑ Hist. and Antiq of the Town, Hundred and Deanery of Buckingham, p. 276.
- ↑ 1147 is the date of the foundation according to Lysons's and Lipscomb's County Histories.
- ↑ The Japanese deer came from Sir Victor Brooke's park, Colebrook, where they were introduced by him and Lord Powerscourt from Japan.
- ↑ Lipscomb, iv. 533 (footnote).
