INGLEWOOD FOREST, a quondam forest in Cumberland; extending from Penrith to the neighbourhood of Carlisle, and measuring about 60 miles in circuit. It was given by the Conqueror to Ranulph de Meschiens; was long stocked with red deer, fallow deer, and other beasts of chase; was the scene of hunts by Edward I., when residing at Carlisle; formed an object of keen contests between the Scots and the English, for possession of its fastnesses; was finally ceded by the Scots in 1237; became afterwards the property of the Crown; continued to be strictly a forest till the time of Henry VIII.; and was given to the first Earl of Portland by William III.

(John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72))