416 A FOREST WONDER. [Aprii,, 



Abbey is associated with many traditions of festive splendour, and 

 another era of hospitality seemed to have dawned. In 1732 the 

 owner of Welbeck appears to have been indiscriminate in his hospi- 

 tality, for about that period, on one of the roads near the Abbey, was 

 placed this curious notice : — 



' Wlioso is hungry and liste to eate, 

 Let him come to Welbeck to his meate ; 

 And for a uight and for a day, 

 His horse shall have both corn and hay : 

 And no man shall ask him when he goeth away.' 



In 1619 James I., whilst the guest of Sir William Cavendish, was 

 entertained there with great magnificence; and in 1633 the festivities 

 in honour of the visit of Charles I. were so enticing that his Majesty 

 came again to the Abbey in 1634, when there was 'such excessive 

 feasting as had scarcely ever been known in England.' Charles, 

 accompanied by the Queen, marvelled at the ardour of the reception, 

 and the generosity of the host. ' The earl,' says one historian, ' sent 

 for all the gentry of the country to wait upon their Majesties, and so 

 liberal was he in his efforts to please his Iloyal guests, that £15,000 

 did not cover the expenditure.' 



Following upon the visit of the Prince of Wales, a visit enjoyable 

 to both guest and host, the Duke of Portland invited to his park the 

 Honourable Artillery Company, with which he had been connected for 

 some time in an honorary capacity, and for ten days the officers and 

 men were encamped under the shadow of the Abbey, partaking of a 

 right royal hospitality, and enjoying what was nothing less than a 

 huge picnic in a huge park. The sham fights which were organised 

 attracted thousands to the spot, and the Bank Holiday of 1882 was 

 certainly unlike any corresponding period in the history of Welbeck. 

 Quietness supervened, and up to the present time no extraordinary 

 carousal has awakened the echoes of the forest, and the inhabitants of 

 the Abbey are enjoying somewhat of that serene repose which marked 

 their life during the career of the late Duke of Portland. 



N. Hartley Aspden. 



tr- ' ■j^' ^ Cx-' '~o 



Old Nottinghamshire. — Mr. J. Potter Briscoe, F.R.H.S., Librarian of the 

 Nottingham Free Public Library, is preparing a second series of tliis work which 

 will contain, inter alia, a paper on xiiicient Tree Marlcings in Sherwood Forest. 

 It is stated that the writer of the paper in question, Mr. J. G. Ogle, who has 

 carefully studied the subject, will be able to disprove some statements of 

 previous writers. 



