The Sporting Dictionary and Rural Repository, Volume 2 (of 2) / Of General Information upon Every Subject Appertaining to the Sports of the Field

by William Taplin

PADDOCK

,—in earlier times, signified a PADDOCK enclosed with a wall or paling of an immense height, a mile in length, and a quarter of a mile broad, in which DEER were coursed with GREYHOUNDS, in the same manner as HARES are coursed at present, but with numerous variations in respect to the coursing rules now in use, These paddocks, from their great extent, were seldom seen, but in the ROYAL PARKS, or upon the demesnes of the most opulent and distinguished subjects. The sport itself has been a long time discontinued, and is most probably buried in oblivion; the word paddock applying, in the present time, only to a small enclosure of pasture, having a pale to protect it; or to a small tract of land, surrounding, or appertaining to, a rural mansion, where a few brace of FALLOW deer may be kept, but not of magnitude sufficient to acquire the appellation of a PARK.