Hugh Cholmondeley, 3rd Baron Delamere with the rank of captain. The young baron inherited a sizeable estate in the North of England, including land that had been in the Cholmondeley family since 1615 – and the ancestral seat at Vale Royal in the county of Cheshire. The young Lord Delamere made his first trip to Africa in 1891 to hunt lion in British Somaliland, and returned yearly to resume the hunt. In 1894 he was severely mauled by an attacking lion, and was only saved when his Somali gunbearer, Abdullah Ashur, leaped on the lion, giving Delamere time to retrieve his rifle. As a result
Delamere Forest for killing game were blinding, mutilation or execution; although these punishments were gradually replaced by fines. The original forest was a predominantly oak-mixed woodland, but other species included elm, lime, yew, chestnut, fir, larch, beech, ash, silver birch, hazel, willow and alder. The forest area also encompassed heath and wetland, as well as pasture, arable land and even small settlements. Agriculture was, however, allowed within the forest boundaries only under severe restrictions; assarting, or enclosing and clearing new land for agriculture, was prohibited until 1215. As large areas of Mondrem were slowly cleared of woodland, the northerly Forest of Mara