chester could be thoroughly searched, we might obtain complete information on these points, and even recover copies of the missing registers.
The period which has elapsed since the first Lord Midleton bought Peper Harow in 1712-13 hardly belongs to archaeology. It may, however, be worth noticing that a plan of the park made in 1753 represents the old house, of which no picture remains, as standing on what is now the flower-garden, north-west of the present house. The entrance from Bashing was then by the Norney-lane and down an avenue of trees shown on the plan, branching off from the present footpath. Though no trace of the old house is now to be seen, there is a depression in the flower-garden which probably marks its site; and the position of the old cedars, which are known to have been planted in 1735 or 1736, confirms the evidence of the plan on this point. It is also to be observed that the upper part of the park is traversed on the plan by rows of trees, evidently "survivals" of the old hedge-rows, some of which trees still retain their vigour.
We may be sure that divers small freeholds now forgotten have been absorbed into the present estate of Peper Harow. The Inquisition of 1313 attests the existence of "five free tenants" at that period, and free tenants are mentioned in the Inquisition of 1354. Thomas Kennyng, who conveyed all his land in Peper Harow to John Floder in the 5th year of Henry VII. by a deed now in Lord Midleton's possession, was probably one of these freeholders. The Shackleford property was purchased by the fourth Viscount Midleton in 1797, having been formerly in the hands of the Wyatts, by one of whom the farmhouse at Rodsall was built in 1680, and afterwards in the hands of the Garthwaites, one of whom built a house now pulled down, on the site of the old Hall-place. There is a tombstone in Peper Harow churchyard in memory of Jane Garthwaite, his sister, who died in 1763. In the early part of the present century the fourth Lord Midleton purchased Little Ing farm, then called Goddards; Michenhall, which must in old
