Park - Definition - Law Dictionary Home Dictionary Definition park

Definition :

Park [fr. parcus, Lat., fr. parco, to spare], a place of privilege for wild beasts of venery, and other wild beasts of the forest and chase; who are to have a firm place and protection there, so that no man may hurt or chase them without licence of the owner. A park differs from a forest, in that, as Compton observes, a subject may hold a park by prescription or royal grant. It differs from a chase because a park must be enclosed; if it lie open, it is a good cause of seizing it into the sovereign's hands, as a free chase may be if it lie enclosed. To a park three things are required-1st, a grant thereof; 2nd, enclosure by pale, wall, or hedge; 3rd, beasts of a park, such as buck, does, etc.; see Sir Charles Howard's case, 1626 Cro Car 59; Pease v. Courtney, (1904) 2 Ch 509. The word 'park,' as used in the (English) Settled Land Acts, is not confined to an ancient legal park but includes an ordinary private park (Pease v. Courtney).

Royal Parks.-As to the management of the royal parks see the (English) Parks Regulation Act, 1872; London Parks and Works Act, 1887; and Parks Regulation (Amendment) Act, 1926 (16 & 17 Geo.

5. C. 36); also (English) Housing, Town and Country Planning, and Restrictions on Ribbon Development Acts; Chit. Stat. Tit. 'Crown,' and Bailey v. Williamson, (1872) LR 8 QB 118.

Gifts for Parks.-By 34 Vict. c. 13, repealed and re-enacted by the (English) Mortmain and Charitable Trusts Act, 1888, proceeding on the Preamble that it is expedient to facilitate gifts of land for the purpose of forming public parks, schools, and museums, it is provided that all gifts and assurances of land, up to a limited acreage, and whether made by deed, or by will or codicil, for such purposes, and all bequests of personal estate to be applied in or towards the purchase of land for such purposes, shall be valid, notwithstanding the Statutes of Mortmain; and see OPEN SPACES.

Park, includes not only surface of earth but everything under or over it, Calcutta Youth Front v. State of Venkatesuchetti, (1987) 2 All LT 247.