current; for ancient settlers loved to reside by brooks and rivulets, where they could dip for their water without the trouble and expense of digging wells and of drawing.
It remains still unsettled among the antiquaries at what time tracts of land were first appropriated to the chase alone for the amusement of the Sovereign. Whether our Saxon monarchs had any royal forests, does not, I believe, appear on record; but the “Constitutiones de Foresta,” of Canute, the Dane, are come down to us. We shall not, therefore, pretend to say whether Wolmer Forest existed as a royal domain before the conquest. If it did not, we may suppose it was laid out by some of our earliest Norman kings, who were exceedingly attached to the pleasures of the chase, and resided much at Winchester, which lies at a moderate distance from this district. The Plantagenet princes seem to have been pleased with Wolmer, for tradition says that King John resided just upon the verge, at Ward-le-ham, on a regular and remarkable mount, still called King John’s Hill, and Lodge Hill; and Edward III. had a chapel in his park, or enclosure, at Kingsley.* Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, and Richard, Duke of York, say my evidences, were both, in their turns, wardens of Wolmer Forest, which seems to have served for an appointment for the younger princes of the royal family, as it may again.
I have intentionally mentioned Edward III. and the dukes Humphrey and Richard, before King Edward II., because I have reserved, for the entertainment of my readers, a pleasant anecdote respecting that prince, with which I shall close this letter.
As Edward II. was hunting on Wolmer Forest, Morris Ken, of the kitchen, fell from his horse several times, at which accidents the king laughed immoderately; and, when the chase was over, ordered him twenty shillings,† an enormous sum for those days!
* The parish of Kingsley lies between and divides Wolmer Forest from Ayles Holt Forest. See Letter IX. to Mr. Pennant.
† “Item, paid at the lodge at Wolmer, when the king was stag-hunting there, to Morris Ken, of the kitchen, because he rode before the king and often fell from his horse, at which the king laughed exceedingly—a gift, by command, of twenty shillings.”—A MS. in possession of Thomas Astle, Esq., containing the private expenses of Edward II.
