,—in its plain construction, is an extensive tract of ground, or country, enclosed with WALL or PALING, well variegated with WOOD and WATER, for the support of cattle, and preservation of VENISON and GAME. It becomes a park by the privilege of prescription, or by the King's grant. There are many parks in possession of the Crown, (as well as of opulent individuals,) of which Windsor Great Park is the largest in the kingdom. It is upon record, that the Park of Woodstock was the first in England, formed and enclosed about the year 1124, and bounded by a stone wall seven miles in circumference. The example was followed by Henry Earl of Warwick; after which park-making became a common practice in different parts of the country.
PARTNER
.—There were five famous horses of this name in succession, from Old Partner, in 1718, to Little Partner, in 1745. The first was called Croft's; the second, Moore's; the third, Grisewood's; the fourth, Bright's; and the last, Pearson's. Old Partner was got by Jigg, out of a sister to Mixbury; he was a most excellent runner, and produced an astonishing progeny of winners; from whom his blood is ramified through most of the studs in the kingdom. He was sire of Sedbury, Tartar, Cato, Traveller, Badger, Grisewood's Partner, Little John, Larkin's Looby, Duke of Bolton's Little John, Barforth, the Witherington Mare, Vane's Little Partner, Parker's Lady Thigh, Grisewood's Lady Thigh, Lodge's Roan Mare, &c. &c.
PARTRIDGES
—are those well known timid, harmless, inoffensive branches of the feathered creation, the beautiful variegations of whose plumage, and the nutritive property of whose flesh, have entitled them to the distinguished appellation of GAME, and the honour of parliamentary protection. They begin to pair off from the fragmental remains of COVIES, about the last week in February, and through the month of March; make their nests upon the ground, in hedges, and the banks of hedge-rows principally; though they are sometimes found in fields of CLOVER, but very rarely in standing CORN. The hen usually deposits from fifteen to twenty eggs, and produces mostly a bird from every egg she lays. They hatch about the second or third week in June. The young in the aggregate are called COVIES, and they are known to run almost as soon as they are hatched. Although they are sometimes reduced by VERMIN, or unexpected torrents of rain, yet from SIX to EIGHT BRACE are generally brought up to fly with the old ones. They are included in every Act of Parliament for the preservation of the game; and the penalty for killing a partridge by any unqualified person, is FIVE POUNDS: if such unqualified person kills a partridge, without having taken out an ANNUAL CERTIFICATE from the Clerk of the Peace for the county in which he resides, (or where such partridge may have been killed,) he is then liable to a farther penalty of twenty pounds; making a forfeiture of TWENTY-FIVE POUNDS in the whole.
If a person qualified to kill game in right of his property, (that is, by inheritance of a FREEHOLD landed estate of the clear yearly value of ONE HUNDRED POUNDS per annum, or a LEASEHOLD of ONE HUNDRED and FIFTY in his own, or his WIFE'S right,) does so at any one time without having taken out an annual certificate as aforesaid, and for which the sum of THREE GUINEAS has been previously paid, he is then liable to a penalty of twenty-pounds. And any person qualified, or unqualified, killing any PARTRIDGE between the first of February and the first of September, in any year, is liable to an additional penalty of FIVE POUNDS to those already recited for each offence. It is natural to conceive, that the various modes of punishment annexed to a transgression of what are termed the GAME-LAWS, would have operated to a perfect and complete prohibition: that it may now have nearly reached the zenith of that effect by day, is admitted; but that a total suppression of the NOCTURNAL depredators can ever be accomplished, the annual destruction, and almost public sale, of game, leave very little reason to expect.
Partridges, in their natural and infant state, accompany the hen in search of food, obey the cluck of the mother, and are protected by the clutch of her wings, in the same manner as chicken, and other domestic fowl. The hen is so instinctively attached to her young, that she will encounter every difficulty, and face death in every form, to insure their safety: although stupidly timid, and rendered almost insensible by her own fears, upon other occasions, yet great sagacity is observable in her endeavours to preserve her offspring. When they are very young, and unable to save themselves by flight; and in all cases of danger, when approached by that fatal enemy the dog; the hen will rise, and lead him on, by short flights, or rather hoverings, of twenty and thirty yards, but just above the ground, till, having induced him to follow a sufficient distance from the seat of all her fears, she takes a long, and more circuitous route at her next flight; where, after finding she has completely baffled her pursuer, another effort brings her to her young in safety. When separated by danger (whether the approach of the dog and gun in the sporting season, or by other means) even to a great distance, they are invariably brought again together by the inherent property of CALLING, which they possess in so powerful a degree, as to insure a very expeditious recovery of each other. The imitation of this call has been brought to great perfection by the fraternity of POACHERS, who avail themselves of the birds' too great credulity, which is frequently the cause of their destruction.
PASTERN
.—The pastern of a horse is the distance between the fetlock and the coronet, which terminates at the junction of hair and hoof. The pastern should be short, strong, and uniform; when long, it is proportionally weak; and the nearer the fetlock is to the ground, the more liable such horse is to be let down in the back sinews, and become lame.