Editing Park (section)

==History==
[[File:Medieval Hunting Park.JPG|thumb|upright=0.7|Depiction of a medieval hunting park from a 15th-century manuscript]]
[[Deer park (England)|English deer parks]] were used by the [[aristocracy]] in [[medieval]] times for game hunting. They had walls or thick hedges around them to keep game animals (e.g., stags) in and people out. It was strictly forbidden for commoners to hunt animals in these deer parks.

These game preserves evolved into landscaped parks set around [[mansion]]s and [[country house]]s from the sixteenth century onwards. These may have served as hunting grounds but they also proclaimed the owner's wealth and status. An aesthetic of landscape design began in these [[stately home]] parks where the [[natural landscape]] was enhanced by [[landscape architect]]s such as [[Capability Brown]] and [[Humphry Repton]]. The [[French formal garden]] such as designed by [[André Le Nôtre]] at [[Palace of Versailles|Versailles]] is an earlier and elaborate example. As cities became crowded, private hunting grounds became places for the public.

Early opportunities for the creation of urban parks in both Europe and the United States grew out of medieval practice to secure pasture lands within the safe confines of villages and towns. The most famous US example of a city park that evolved from this practice is the [[Boston Common]] in Boston, Massachusetts (1634).<ref>{{Cite book|title=Encyclopedia of the City|last=Caves|first=R. W.|publisher=Routledge|year=2004|isbn=978-0-415-25225-6|pages=505–506}}</ref>

With the [[Industrial Revolution]] parks took on a new meaning as areas set aside to preserve a sense of nature in the cities and towns. Sporting activity came to be a major use for these urban parks. Areas of outstanding [[natural]] beauty were also set aside as [[national park]]s to prevent them from being spoiled by uncontrolled development.