In the time of Elizabeth the largest park in Warwickshire, and one of the very finest in England, was that which surrounded the castle rendered classic ground by the immortal limning of Scott—­Kenilworth.  In a survey taken in the time of James I. it is stated that “the circuit of the castle mannours, parks and chase lying round together contain at least nineteen or twenty miles in a pleasant country, the like both for strength, state and pleasure not being within the realme of England.”  Kenilworth came to an end in Cromwell’s time, a period very unfavorable to these sylvan paradises.  He had the park cut up and divided amongst various grantees.  How much damage was done to the park interest by the civil wars the following extract from the Life of Margaret, duchess of Newcastle, attests:  “Of eight parks which my lord had before the wars, there was but one left that was not quite destroyed—­viz.  Welbeck Park of about four miles compass; for my lord’s brother, Sir Charles Cavendish, who bought out the life of my lord in that lordship, saved most part of it from being cut down; and in Blore Park there were some few deer left.  The rest of the parks were totally defaced and destroyed, both wood, pales and deer; amongst which was also Clipston Park of seven miles compass, wherein my lord had taken much delight formerly, it being rich of wood, and containing the greatest and tallest timber trees of all the woods he shad; insomuch that only the pale-row was valued at two thousand pounds.  It was watered by a pleasant river that runs through it, full of fish and otters; was well stocked with deer, full of hares, and had great store of partridges, poots, pheasants, etc., besides all sorts of water-fowl; so that this park afforded all manner of sports, for hunting, hawking, coursing, fishing, etc., for which my lord esteemed it very much.  And although his patience and wisdom is such that I never perceived him sad or discontented for his own losses and misfortunes, yet when he beheld the ruins of that park I observed him troubled, though he did little express it, only saying he had been in hopes it would not have been so much defaced as he found it, there being not one timber tree in it left for shelter.”

The number of deer-parks in Scotland and Ireland is small.  The principal park in the former is that of the duke of Buccleuch at Dalkeith Palace, near Edinburgh.  At Hamilton, belonging to the duke of that ilk, are wild cattle similar to those at Chillingham.

A wonderfully picturesque Irish park is Rockingham, the Hon. L. King Harinan’s, in the county Roscommon.  The traveler will observe this beautiful and very extensive demesne as he goes from Boyle to Sligo.  It is at the foot of the Curlew Mountains, and contains a magnificent sheet of water surrounding an island on which stands an ancient castle, still inhabitable.  At Strokestown, in the same county, is a small park, where Mr. Mahon, its former owner, planted many years ago all sorts of forest trees, to see how far the deer would eat them:  the only tree they entirely avoided was the beech.