birds of the night) to feed in the brooks and meadows; returning
again with the dawn of the morning. Had this lake an arm or
two more, and were it planted round with thick covert (for now
it is perfedlly naked), it might make a valuable decoy.
Yet neither it’s extent, nor the clearnefs of it’s water, nor the
refort of various and curious fowls,-nor it’s pifturefque groups of
cattle, can render this meer fo remarkable as the great-quantity of
coins that were found in it’s bed about forty years ago. But, as fuch
difcoveries more properly belong to the antiquities of this place, I
(hall fupprefs all particulars for the prefent, till I enter profeffedly
on my feries of letters refpecling the more remote hiftory of this
village and diftrift.
L E T T E R IX.
.TO THE S AM E .
B y way of fupplement, I fhall trouble you once more on this
fubjeft, to inform you that Wolmer, with her filler for'eft Ayles Holt,
alias Alice Holt'i, as it is called in old records, is “held by grant
-from the crown for a term of years.
The grantees that the author remembers are Brigadier-General
Emanuel Scroops Howe-, and his lady, Ruperta, who was a natural
.daughter of Prince Rupert- by Margaret Hughs; a Mr. Mordauht, of
“ In Rot. Inquifit. de llatuforefl;. in Scaccar. 36. Ed. 3. itis called ASJhott^oi,::
In the fame, “ T it . Wcolmer and Aifiolt Hantifc. Dominus Rex-habetunam capel-
y * lam in baia fua de'KSngefle.” “ Haia, f i fe s , fifimentutti.f a r c u s a G all, bate and
** haye" Spelraan’ sGloflary.
' me
•ithe ' Peterborough family, who married a dowager Lady Pembroke;
Henry Bilfon Legge and lady; and now Lord Stamel, their fon.
The lady of General Home lived, to an advanced age, long
Surviving her hulband; and, at hér death, left behind her many
curious pieces of mechanifm of her father’s conftrudling, who
was a diftinguilhed mechanic and artiftr, as well as warrior; and,
among the reft, a very complicated clock, lately in poffeffion of
Mr. Elmer, the celebrated game-painter at Farnham, in the county
of. Surrey.
Though thefe two forefts are only parted by a narrow range of
enclofures, yet no two foils can be more different: for The Holt'
confifts of a ftrong loam, of a miry nature, carrying a good turf,
.and abounding with oaks that grow to be large timber; while
-Wolmer is nothing but a hungry, fandy, barren wafte.
The former, being all in the parifh of Binjted, is about two miles
in extent from north to fouth, and near as much from eaft to
weft; and contains within it many woodlands and lawns, and
the great ledge -where the grantees relide; and a fmaller • lodge
called Goofe-green; and is abutted on by the parifhes of Kingjley,
Frinjham, -Farnham, and Bentley; all o f which have right of common.
One thing is remarkable; that, though The Holt has been of old
well flocked with fallow-deer, unreftrained by any pales or fences
more than a common hedge, yet they were never feen within the
limits of Wolmer; nor were the red deer of Wolmer ever known to
haunt the thickets or glades of The Holt.
At prefent the deer of The Holt are much thinned and reduced
by the night-hunters, who perpetually harafs them in fpite of the
* This prince was the inventor of me%%otinto*
E efforts