from Mr. Froude, but it was actually purchased by Alan Brodrick, afterwards Viscount Midleton, in March, 1712-13, and in the sixth Drapier's Letter, addressed to Lord Midleton, in 1724, Swift describes the Peper Harow tenants as his "neighbours," evidently alluding to his own former residence at Moor Park.
No buildings now existing here can be attributed with certainty to the period between the Brocas and the Brodrick possession of Peper Harow. Lady Jane Covert speaks in her will of her jointure-house at Peper Harow; but when that house was built, and whether it was the same as that pulled down between 1760 and 1765, we have no means of determining. Judging by its character, I think we may safely refer to the 17th century the cottage formerly inhabited by Admiral Brodrick, and now by Mr. Thompson, the gardener. The yew hedge which stands near can hardly be of much later date; but I can point to no other tangible relics of Peper Harow in the 17th century, except two of the church bells, the one bearing date 1603, and the other 1694; a tablet in memory of Mr. Tonstall, who died rector of Peper Harow in 1616; and another tablet in memory of Elizabeth Woodes (daughter of his successor), who died in 1621. I have been enabled, however, by the kindness of Mr. Molyneux and Sir Thomas Duffus Hardy, to procure several extracts, referring to Peper Harow, from the unpublished Loseley Manuscripts. As these extracts possess considerable local interest, they are here subjoined in extenso—
LOSELEY MSS. PEPER HAROW. (1.) A Muster-Book (116 pages) dated 29 Jan., 1583, contains the following entry:— "Pepperharrowe. Bittmen of the beste sorte:—Robte. Chittye, Nycholas Edwardes, |
