it is said, holding their lands from it.  Going to wait on the duke, I found him very kind when I told him my country, the late earl of Derby having married his sister. [1] He commanded me to dine with him, and the next time mounted me upon one of his horses to wait on him a-hunting in his park, which, not being two miles about, I thought of little compass to belong to so great a person, till I found that few are allowed to have any there save the princes of the blood.  So true is it that there are more parks in England than in all Europe besides.”

A large park would appear to have been among the many luxuries of the princely Medici, for Reresby says:  “Ten miles from Florence the duke hath another country-house, nothing so considerable in itself as in its situation, standing betwixt several hills on one side, covered with vines and olive trees, and a valley divided into many walks by rows of trees leading different ways:  one leads to a park where the great duke hath made a paddock course by the direction of Signior Bernard Gascoigne, an Italian, who, having served our late king in his wars, carried the pattern from England.  Near to this house, Poggio-Achaiano, is another park, the largest in Italy, or rather chase, said to be thirty miles in compass.”

Foremost amongst English parks is Windsor.  The immense tracts by which Windsor was formerly surrounded consisted of park and forest.  Windsor Forest has gradually diminished in size.  In the time of Charles I. it contained twelve parishes, and probably covered not less than 100,000 acres.  According to a survey in 1789-92, it amounted to 59,600 acres, of which the enclosed property of the Crown amounted to 5454.  Like all the other forests in England, it has been much encroached on, and now consists of only some 1450 acres adjoining Windsor Great Park.  The rest of the land formerly composing it has been sold or leased.  Enough of the forest remains, in conjunction with the park, to enable the visitor to make many delightful excursions.  The most agreeable way of seeing this sylvan country is on horseback.  Perhaps nowhere in the world can one get a more delicious canter.  By a little management it is easy to take a ride of twenty-five miles without more than a couple of miles off the turf.  In 1607 the Great Park was stated at 3650 acres:  it consists now of about one thousand acres less.

The principal royal park in modern days, next to Windsor, is Richmond.  This covers more than two thousand acres, and, thanks to the railway, may almost be regarded as a lung of London, being only eight miles distant from the city.  Richmond Park is as replete as Windsor with historical association, and came into especial importance in the reign of Charles I. That king, who was excessively addicted to the sports of the field, had a strong desire to make a great park, for red as well as fallow deer, between Richmond and Hampton Court, where he had large wastes of his own, and great parcels of wood, which made it very fit