The Cincinnati daily star. [volume] ([Cincinnati, Ohio]) 1875-1880, 1878-10-16
MALVERN CHASE.

In Queen Elizabeths reign the Parishes
of Castle and Birch Morton, the Borrow,
Bromsberrow Malverns Parva and Magma,
part of Leigh, Mathon, and Gallow, with
in the County of Hereford, together with
Hanley, Powick, Longdon, and, in some
vaguer sense, Busldey and Pendock, were
ireluded within the liberties and precincts
of the Chase. The greater part Of this
tract, described by William of Malmesbury
as wilderness thick set with trees, waste
Of forest and marsh land, which was the
lair of wolves and other beasts of prey boz
fore the Conquest, appears to have been
unappropriated until seized upon for forest
ground by the Norman sovereigns. Mr..
Lees has adopted from the Worcestershire
historian Nash the distinction of chase
from forest or park, between which it
holds middle place. No subject could
hold forest, for a forest enjoyed a JUS
tice in Eyre, whom only the Grown could
appoint, and, if forest came into the
hands Of a subject, its name was changed
to a chase. The latter differed from a
park in being uninelosed and of larger ex-
tent, more variously stocked, and over
looked by greater variety of officers.
Within the limits of old Malvern Chase
there were formerly two parks, Hanley
and Blackmore, the former Of which was
disparked as late as 1890. 1t would ap-
pear that Malvern Chase has gone through
each of these transitions, having been
royal forest under the Conqueror until it
was granted by Edward I. to Gilbert de
Glare, Earl of Gloucester, his son-in-law;
then chase until it was disafforested in
1852; and afterward, in those portions
represented by Hanley, Blaekmore, and
probably Bushley, by many parks in the
ownership of the families of Lechmere,
Hornihold, and others, but all of them, as
well as the rest of the ancient chase, trace
able to the lordship of the Earls of Glou-
cester. An amusing episode in the early
history of this chase is the Red Earl Gilbert
de Clare's trench or ditch, which formed
boundry line along the crest of the hills
westward, and which being still clearly
marked on the Worcestershire Beacon and
elsewhere stands as a memento of the
tenacity of the prelates of the Plantagenes
days for even such worldly temporalities as
sporting rights. Not only had Bishop
Godfrey Gifard of Worcester a hot dispute
with the Red Earl of Gloucester about this
trench, but it seems that the afterward
sainted Thomas de Cautelupe, whose shrine
is in his Cathedral of Hereford, strongly
objected to the Gloucester ditch" which
was designed to prevent any waits and
strays in the shape Of vert and venison
getting into Herefordshire, and affording
him pastime at his summer Palace OF
Colwall. In truth, these pleasant country
quarters appear to have fostered sporting
taste in high ecclesiastics, as we gather
from an epistle quoted by MIR. Lees from
Reginald Bryan, who WAS translated to
the See of Worcester in 1852, reminding
the Bishop of St. David's of his promise Of
six brace of excellent hunting dogs and ii
is matter of tolerably veracious tradition
that Bishop Cornwall, who was translated
from Hereford to Worcester in 1908, kept
II. Joav a.,
to be noted, however, that the penalties for
keeping a sporting dog, when Malvern
Chase was in its glory, were heavy on
inferior clergy; and its chief forester,
parker, verderers; viewers, and riders had
almost summary powers over men or dogs
suspected of hunting urlawfully within
the prescribed boundaries. Saturday
Rcuiew.