130 THE HALL OF OAKHAM. wards the extreme close of the twelfth century. A precise date ought not to be expected, but if it ranges from IISO to 1190 this may be considered as a fair approximation to that of the structure, the architectural and documentary evidence concurring to place its erection between these years. The great rolls of the Pipe supply a few particulars regard- ing Walchelin de Ferrars, which are deserving notice. They tell us for example that in the 22nd Hen. II. (1176) he was fined a hundred marcs for trespassing in the king's forests. In the 27th Hen. II. (1181) he paid a hundred shillings for a pardon. In the 33rd Hen. II. he answered thirty shillings for one knight's fee and a half upon the collection of the scutage of Galweye^ In the 34th Hen. 11. (1188) the sheriff returns him on the great Norman roll as amerced in a hun- dred pounds, because of a duel upon a robbery which was ill kept in his court. From an ancient charter in the Tower, tested at Moreton on the 11th of April, 1 Rich. I., (1190,) we learn that Richard granted and contirmed to Walkeline de Ferrieres and his heirs after him acquittance of eighty acres of essarts (that is, land reclaimed from the forest and reduced to cultivation) in the forest of Rutland, namely, in the plain of Oakham fifty-five acres, in the plain of Braunceston twenty acres, in the plain of Broc five acres, so that he should not render the dues or acknowledgments he was accustomed to make*=. Matthew Paris says he was at the siege of Acre in the Holy Land with the English king in the third year of his reign (1191.) By an entry on the roll of the Norman exche- quer it appears that in the 7th Rich. I. (1195) he rendered an account of £140, which he had received from the treasury of Caen, to carry to the king in Germany, and for which he had acquittance by the king's writ. Also of £89. 8s. which he had from the focage of his land, £1 04 by the verdict of a jury against him, and £10 for keeping his retainers. The whole sum he was indebted was £343. 8s. : of this £100 was paid into the treasury, £140 was pardoned him by the king's writ, and he stiU owed £1G8. In the 8th Rich. I. (1196) the great roll of the English exchequer returns Walkelin de Ferrars as rendering an account of 40s. for his scutage of lands held in the county of Rutland. The Chancellor's roll of the 3rd John (1201) also returns him as paying this sum " llol. I'lp. ;j;i Ueii. II. Hotel. (1187.) <■' Cliaitffi Aiitiqiipe, No. 37.
