A HISTORY OF SURREY gentlemen's livings and others are verie well knowen, so as if any defaulte should be it is streight waie subject to controlment.' Clearly, timber and iron guns from the Weald were brought through Surrey for the Admiralty and Master of the Ordnance, and the inhabitants were uncomfortably close to the eye of the Exchequer. But the grievance of royal purveyance was a legitimate cause of complaint, and the royal example of enclosure of parks for pleasure was likely to be readily followed in a county so near the usual neighbour- hood of the court. The Act for the increase of horses compelled private owners of parks of more than a mile in circumference to keep brood mares in them. There were in Surrey, under Elizabeth, the following parks of this size belonging to the Crown and to private owners : Oatlands, Guildford, Woking, Byfleet, Witley, Bagshot, Mortlake, Esher. All these belonged to the Crown. There were two at Nonsuch belonging to the Crown under Henry VIII., and again at the end of Elizabeth's reign. Two at Farnham belonging to the Bishop of Winchester. Others, belonging to private owners, were at Henley, two at Pirford, one at Betchworth, Hartswood-in-Buckland, Reigate, Blechingley, Sterborough, Beddington, Sutton, Clandon. There were two small parks at Richmond, united and enlarged by Charles I. Loseley, Has- combe, Vachery, Baynards, Burstow, Crowhurst, Hackstal and South Park (north and south of Godstone respectively), Chobham, Stoke d'Abernon, Wimbledon and others also existed. 1 Some were made, some enlarged about this time. Over the whole of the old bailiwick of Windsor Forest the Crown rights in deer were rigorously enforced, as the Loseley papers abundantly testify. Lord Montague the bailiff is in constant correspondence with the sheriffs and deputy lieutenants con- cerning deer stealing, taking of hawks' nests and other offences there. It is noticeable that not one of the parks named above is on the naturally waste ground of Surrey, about Leith Hill, Holmbury, Blackheath or Hind- head. They are thick on the Bagshot Sand wastes, but otherwise they are nearly all upon what should have been the better agricultural land. The enclosure of these parks and the annoyance of the deer in the Surrey purlieu of Windsor Forest no doubt caused a feeling of irritation among the husbandmen. A letter is preserved from Lord Montague 2 of Elizabeth's reign touching certain disorders in the forest, and certain strange demands for the restitution of the forest by the Crown. The old dispute of the thirteenth century was not dead, and the Crown was 1 Speed's map, temp. James I., shows 36. 8 Loseley MSS. July 29, 1565, x. 26. This very large collection of papers, relating mostly to the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, is preserved at Loseley near Guildford. The bulk of it consists of the official and private correspondence of three generations of the More family, Sir Christopher, Sir William and Sir George, ob. 1 549, 1 600 and 1 63 z respectively, and of Sir Thomas Cawarden, ob. 1559. It has never been exhaustively edited, and the catalogue done for the Historical MSS. Commission is imperfect and in places erroneous. A certain number of the letters, etc., are collected into volumes. These are referred to below in Roman figures for the volumes, Arabic figures for the number of the document in the volume. A great many papers however are lying loose, and can only be referred to by dates. 368
