CHAPTER XX.
OF PARKS AND WARRENS.
[1577, Book II., Chapter 15; 1587, Book II., Chapter 19.]
In every shire of England there are great plenty of parks, whereof some here and there, to wit, well near to the number of two hundred, for her daily provision of that flesh, appertain to the prince, the rest to such of the nobility and gentlemen as have their lands and patrimonies lying in or near unto the same. I would gladly have set down the just number of these enclosures to be found in every county; but, sith I cannot so do, it shall suffice to say that in Kent and Essex only are to the number of an hundred, and twenty in the bishopric of Durham, wherein great plenty of fallow deer is cherished and kept. As for warrens of conies, I judge them almost innumerable, and daily like to increase, by reason that the black skins[195] of those beasts are thought to countervail the prices of their naked carcases, and this is the only cause why the grey are less esteemed. Near unto London their quickest merchandise is of the young rabbits, wherefore the older conies[196] are brought from further off, where there is no such speedy utterance of rabbits and sucklings[197] in their season, nor so great loss by their skins, sith they are suffered to grow up to their full greatness with their owners. Our parks are generally enclosed with strong pales made of oak, of which kind of wood there is great store cherished in the woodland countries from time to time in each of them only for the maintenance of the said defence and safe keeping of the fallow deer from ranging about the country. Howbeit in times past divers have been fenced in with stone walls, especially in the times of the Romans, who first brought fallow deer into this land (as some conjecture), albeit those enclosures were overthrown again by the Saxons and Danes, as Cavisham, Towner, and Woodstock, beside other in the west country, and one also at Bolton. Among other things also to be seen in that town there is one of the fairest clocks in Europe. Where no wood is they are also enclosed with piles of slate; and thereto it is doubted of many whether our buck or doe are to be reckoned in wild or tame beasts or not. Pliny deemeth them to be wild; Martial is also of the same opinion, where he saith, “Imbelles damæ quid nisi præda sumus?” And so in time past the like controversy was about bees, which the lawyers call feras (Tit de acquirendo rerum dominio, lib. 2 Instit.). But Pliny, attempting to decide the quarrel, calleth them medias inter feras et placidas aves. But whither am I so suddenly digressed? In returning therefore unto our parks, I find also the circuit of these enclosures in like manner contain oftentimes a walk of four or five miles, and sometimes more or less. Whereby it is to be seen what store of ground is employed upon that vain commodity, which bringeth no manner of gain or profit to the owner, sith they commonly give away their flesh, never taking penny for the same, except the ordinary fee, and parts of the deer given unto the keeper by a custom, who beside three shillings four pence or five shillings in money, hath the skin, head, umbles, chine, and shoulders: whereby he that hath the warrant for a whole buck hath in the end little more than half, which in my judgment is scarcely equal dealing; for venison in England is neither bought nor sold, as in other countries, but maintained only for the pleasure of the owner and his friends. Albeit I heard of late of one ancient lady which maketh a great gain by selling yearly her husband’s venison[198] to the cooks (as another of no less name will not stick to ride to the market to see her butter sold), but not performed without infinite scoffs and mocks, even of the poorest peasants of the country, who think them as odious matters in ladies and women of such countenance to sell their venison and their butter as for an earl to feel his oxen, sheep, and lambs, whether they be ready for the butcher or not, or to sell his wool unto the clothier, or to keep a tan-house, or deal with such like affairs as belong not to men of honour, but rather to farmers or graziers; for which such, if there be any, may well be noted (and not unjustly) to degenerate from true nobility, and betake themselves to husbandry.[199] And even the same enormity took place sometimes among the Romans, and entered as far as into the very senate, of whom some one had two or three ships going upon the sea, pretending provision for their houses, but in truth following the trades of merchandise, till a law was made which did inhibit and restrain them. Livy also telleth of another law which passed likewise against the senators by Claudius the tribune, and help only of C. Flaminius, that no senator, or he that had been father to any senator, should possess any ship or vessel above the capacity of three hundred amphoras, which was supposed sufficient for the carriage and recarriage of such necessities as should appertain unto his house, sith further trading with merchandises and commodities doth declare but a base and covetous mind (not altogether void of envy that any man should live but he: or that, if any gain were to be had, he only would have it himself), which is a wonderful dealing, and must needs prove in time the confusion of that country wherein such enormities are exercised. Where in times past many large and wealthy occupiers were dwelling within the compass of some one park, and thereby great plenty of corn and cattle seen and to be had among them, beside a more copious procreation of human issue, whereby the realm was always better furnished with able men to serve the prince in his affairs, now there is almost nothing kept but a sort of wild and savage beasts, cherished for pleasure and delight; and yet some owners, still desirous to enlarge those grounds, as either for the breed and feeding of cattle, do not let daily to take in more, not sparing the very commons whereupon many townships now and then do live, affirming that we have already too great store of people in England, and that youth by marrying too soon do nothing profit the country, but fill it full of beggars to the hurt and utter undoing (they say) of the commonwealth.
Certes if it be not a curse of the Lord to have our country converted in such sort, from the furniture of mankind into the walks and shrouds of wild beasts, I know not what is any.[200] How many families also these great and small game (for so most keepers call them) have eaten up and are likely hereafter to devour, some men may conjecture, but many more lament, sith there is no hope of restraint to be looked for in this behalf because the corruption is so general. But, if a man may presently give a guess at the universality of this evil by contemplation of the circumstance, he shall say at the last that the twentieth part of the realm is employed upon deer and conies already, which seemeth very much if it be duly considered of.
King Henry the Eighth, one of the noblest princes that ever reigned in this land, lamented oft that he was constrained to hire foreign aid, for want of competent store of soldiers here at home, perceiving (as it is indeed) that such supplies are oftentimes more hurtful than profitable unto those that entertain them, as may chiefly be seen in Valens the Emperor, our Vortiger, and no small number of others. He would oft marvel in private talk how that, when seven or eight princes ruled here at once, one of them could lead thirty or forty thousand men to the field against another, or two of them 100,000 against the third, and those taken out only of their own dominions. But as he found the want, so he saw not the cause of this decay, which grew beside this occasion now mentioned, also by laying house to house and land to land, whereby many men’s occupyings were converted into one, and the breed of people not a little thereby diminished. The avarice of landlords, by increasing of rents and fines, also did so weary the people that they were ready to rebel with him that would arise, supposing a short end in the wars to be better than a long and miserable life in peace.
Privileges and faculties also are another great cause of the ruin of a commonwealth and diminution of mankind: for, whereas law and nature doth permit all men to live in their best manner, and whatsoever trade they are exercised in, there cometh some privilege or other in the way which cutteth them off from this or that trade, whereby they must needs shift soil and seek unto other countries. By these also the greatest commodities are brought into the hands of few, who imbase, corrupt, and yet raise the prices of things at their own pleasures. Example of this last I can give also in books, which, after the first impression of any one book, are for the most part very negligently handled:[201] whereas, if another might print it so well as the first, then would men strive which of them should do it best; and so it falleth out in all other trades. It is an easy matter to prove that England was never less furnished with people than at this present; for, if the old records of every manor be sought (and search made to find what tenements are fallen either down or into the lord’s hands, or brought and united together by other men), it will soon appear that, in some one manor, seventeen, eighteen, or twenty houses are shrunk. I know what I say, by mine own experience. Notwithstanding that some one cottage be here and there erected of late, which is to little purpose. Of cities and towns either utterly decayed or more than a quarter or half diminished, though some one be a little increased here and there, of towns pulled down for sheep-walks,[202] and no more but the lordships now standing in them, beside those that William Rufus pulled down in his time, I could say somewhat; but then I should swerve yet further from my purpose, whereunto I now return.
We had no parks left in England at the coming of the Normans, who added this calamity also to the servitude of our nation, making men of the best sort furthermore to become keepers of their game, whilst they lived in the meantime upon the spoil of their revenues, and daily overthrew towns, villages, and an infinite sort of families, for the maintenance of their venery. Neither was any park supposed in these times to be stately enough that contained not at the least eight or ten hidelands, that is, so many hundred acres or families (or, as they have been always called in some places of the realm, carrucats or cartwares), of which one was sufficient in old time to maintain an honest yeoman.
King John, travelling on a time northwards, to wit, 1209, to war upon the King of Scots, because he had married his daughter to the Earl of Bullen without his consent, in his return overthrew a great number of parks and warrens, of which some belonged to his barons, but the greatest part to the abbots and prelates of the clergy. For hearing (as he travelled), by complaint of the country, how these enclosures were the chief decay of men, and of tillage in the land, he sware with an oath that he would not suffer wild beasts to feed upon the fat of his soil, and see the people perish for want of ability to procure and buy them food that should defend the realm. Howbeit, this act of his was so ill taken by the religious and their adherents, that they inverted his intent herein to another end, affirming, and most slanderously, how he did it rather of purpose to spoil the corn and grass of the commons and catholics that held against him of both estates, and by so doing to impoverish and bring the north part of the realm to destruction because they refused to go with him into Scotland. If the said prince were alive in these days (wherein Andrew Boord saith there are more parks in England than in all Europe, over which he travelled in his own person), and saw how much ground they consume, I think he would either double his oaths, or lay most of them open, that tillage might be better looked unto. But this I hope shall not need in time, for the owners of a great sort of them begin now to smell out that such parcels might be employed to their more gain, and therefore some of them do grow to be disparked.
Next of all, we have the frank chase, which taketh something both of park and forest, and is given either by the king’s grant or prescription. Certes it differeth not much from a park; nay, it is in manner the selfsame thing that a park is, saving that a park is environed with pale, wall, or such like, the chase always open and nothing at all enclosed, as we see in Enfield and Malvern chases. And, as it is the cause of the seizure of the franchise of a park not to keep the same enclosed, so it is the like in a chase if at any time it be imparked. It is trespass, and against the law also, for any man to have or make a chase, park, or free warren, without good warranty of the king by his charter or perfect title of prescription; for it is not lawful for any subject either to carnilate, that is, build stone houses, embattle, have the querk of the sea, or keep the assize of bread, ale, or wine, or set up furels, tumbrel, thew, or pillory, or enclose any ground to the aforesaid purposes within his own soil, without his warrant and grant. The beasts of the chase were commonly the buck, the roe, the fox, and the martern. But those of venery in old time were the hart, the hare, the boar, and the wolf; but as this held not in the time of Canutus, so instead of the wolf the bear has now crept in, which is a beast commonly hunted in the east countries, and fed upon as excellent venison, although with us I know not any that feed thereon or care for it at all. Certes it should seem that forests and frank chases have always been had, and religiously preserved in this island, for the solace of the prince and the recreation of his nobility: howbeit I read not that ever they were enclosed more than at this present, or otherwise fenced than by usual notes of limitation, whereby their bounds were remembered from time to time for the better preservation of such venery and vert of all sorts as were nourished in the same. Neither are any of the ancient laws prescribed for their maintenance before the days of Canutus now to be had, sith time hath so dealt with them that they are perished and lost. Canutus therefore, seeing the daily spoil that was made almost in all places of his game, did at the last make sundry sanctions and decrees, whereby from thenceforth the red and fallow deer were better looked to throughout his whole dominions. We have in these days divers forests in England and Wales, of which some belong to the king, and some to his subjects, as Waltham Forest, Windsor, Pickering, Fecknam, Delamore, Gillingham, Kingswood, Wencedale, Clun, Rath, Bredon, Weir, Charlie, Leicester, Lee, Rockingham, Selwood, New Forest, Wichwood, Hatfield, Savernake, Westbury, Blacamore Peak, Dean, Penrise, and many others now clean out of my remembrance; and which, although they are far greater in circuit than many parks and warrens, yet are they in this our time less devourers of the people than these latter, sith, beside, much tillage and many towns are found in each of them, whereas in parks and warrens we have nothing else than either the keeper’s and warrener’s lodge, or, at least, the manor place of the chief lord and owner of the soil. I find also, by good record, that all Essex hath in time past wholly been forest ground, except one cantred or hundred; but how long it is since it lost the said denomination, in good sooth I do not read. This nevertheless remaineth yet in memory, that the town of Walden in Essex, standing in the limits of the aforesaid county, doth take her name thereof. For in the Keltic tongue, wherewith the Saxon or Scythian speech doth not a little participate, huge woods and forests were called walds, and likewise their Druids were named walie or waldie, because they frequented the woods, and there made sacrifice among the oaks and thickets. So that, if my conjecture in this behalf be anything at all, the aforesaid town taketh denomination of Wald and end, as if I should say, “The end of the woody soil;” for, being once out of that parish, the champaign is at hand. Or it may be that it is so called of Wald and dene: for I have read it written in old evidences Waldæne, with a diphthong. And to say truth, dene is the old Saxon word for a vale or low bottom, as dune or don is for a hill or hilly soil. Certes, if it be so, then Walden taketh her name of the woody vale, in which it sometime stood. But the first derivation liketh me better; and the highest part of the town is called also Chipping-Walden, of the Saxon word Zipping, which signifies “Leaning or hanging,” and may very well be applied thereunto, sith the whole town hangeth as it were upon the sides of two hills, whereof the lesser runneth quite through the midst of the same. I might here, for further confirmation of these things, bring in mention of the Wald of Kent; but this may suffice for the use of the word wald, which now differeth much from wold. For as that signifieth a woody soil, so this betokeneth a soil without wood, or plain champaign country, without any store of trees, as may be seen in Cotswold, Porkwold, etc. Beside this I could say more of our forests, and the aforesaid enclosures also, and therein to prove by the book of forest law that the whole county of Lancaster hath likewise been forest heretofore. Also how William the Bastard made a law that whosoever did take any wild beast within the forest should lose an ear (as Henry the First did punish them either by life or limb, which ordinance was confirmed by Henry the Second and his peers at Woodstock, whereupon great trouble rose under King John and Henry the Third, as appeareth by the chronicles); but it shall suffice to have said so much as is set down already.[203]