The Parish was entitled, under the Inclosing Act of 1777, to a certain portion of the Chase, amounting "to 1,732 acres, 2 roods, and 6 perches, together with the encroachments, timber trees, and other trees, tellers and sapplings thereon," which were vested in the Churchwardens, for the time being, and their successors, in trust, for the sole benefit of the owners and proprietors of freehold and copyhold messuages, lands and tenements, within the Parish; their heirs and assigns, and their lessees, tenants, and undertenants, for the time being entitled to right of common or other rights within the Chase, according to their several estates and interests therein. In 1801 they obtained "an Act for dividing "and inclosing the open and common fields, common "marshes, and lammas grounds, Chase allotment, and "other commonable and waste lands within the Parish," the market place, at Enfield, once every month during his imprisonment. (Gent. Mag.) "On Wednesday, the 14, a woman, an old offender, was conveyed "in a cart from Bridewell to Enfield, and publicly whipped at the "cart's tail by the common hangman, for cutting down and "destroying wood in Enfield Chase. She is to undergo the same "discipline twice more."-( Public Ledger, 1764. ) As late as 1810, a public house, kept by one Brocksop, stood on the site of Mr. Logsden's coach factory, which had been the recognised depôt for venison, for those who made no enquiries, according to the old forest adage, "Non inquirendum est, unde venit venison." (41 Geo. III. 1851); and the same have been divided and allotted accordingly, among the tithe owners, lords of manor, and proprietors of freehold and copyhold lands, and others entitled thereto. At the present time it is nearly all inclosed, and but little of its original appearance remains to arrest the attention. The deer from the Chase, which were very numerous, were taken to the estate of the Earl of Bute, at Luton-park, Bedfordshire.* The "Ancient Chase," has been converted into tillage, so that almost all traces of its ancient state have disappeared under the axe and plough. The first attempts to improve it after the division, were, in general, unsuccessful, and it was not until a large amount of capital and labour was expended, that any great progress began to be made in its cultivation; the great obstacles at first were, the expence of clearing away the wood, which, at the time of the enclosure, bore (oak excepted) a very low price, and the poverty of the soil, which was mostly a thin gravel intermixed with clay. The methods adopted were draining, paring, burning, and manuring with marle, which has been found in great abundance and of a fine quality. At the time of this enclosure, a large portion of the *The last red deer killed on Enfield-chase, was shot by William Mellish, Esq., M.P., and its horns are in the possession of E. Ford, Esq. Chase remained in Woodland, a rude yet beautiful district, browsed by deer and suited to the pastimes of its former possessors. The neighbourhood lost much of its picturesque attraction when the enclosure took place, but a sylvan wild of this extent situated in the vicinity of the metropolis. was a dangerous source of mischief. While the moral benefit derived from the change can scarcely be doubted, the advantages in an agricultural point of view are unquestionable. Perhaps the only parts of the Chase now remaining, are at Hadley-common, the "Rough Lot," at Trent Park, and Winchmorehill wood. TRENT PARK. Trent Park, the seat of R. C. L. Bevan, Esq., was formerly the residence of Sir Richard Jebb, Bart., to whom George III. granted a lease of 200 acres, of which he afterwards purchased the freehold. On conferring the dignity of baronet on Dr. Jebb, His Majesty gave the estate the name of Trent Place, in commemoration of the great medical skill by which the life of his brother had been preserved in his severe illness at Trent in the south Tyrol. The estate, which consists of above a * Before the decease of Sir Edward Wilmot, physician in ordinary to His Majesty, George III. being indisposed, ordered Dr. Jebb to be sent for, and being informed that it was etiquette to send for the physician in ordinary, he replied, "don't tell me of your ordinary or "extraordinary, I will have Jebb,"-and this confidence Sir Richard ever afterwards enjoyed. |