THE WILD BOAR. 85 
at last slain by one Nigell, a huntsman, who pre- 
sented the boar’s head to the king; and for a 
reward the king gave him one hide of arable land, 
called Derehyde, and a wood called Hulewood, with 
the custody of the forest of Bernwood, to hold to him 
and his heirs by a horn, which is the charter of the 
aforesaid forest. Upon this land Nigell built a lodge 
or mansion-house, called Borestall, in memory of the 
slain boar. For proof of this, in a large folio 
vellum book, containing transcripts of charters and 
evidences relating to this estate (supposed to have 
been written in or before the reign of Henry VI.), 
is a rude delineation of the site of Borestall House 
and manor, and under it the figure of a man 
presenting on his knees to the king the head of a 
boar on the point of a sword, and the king returning 
to him a coat of arms, argent, a fesse, gules, between 
two crescents, and a horn, vert. 
The same figure of a boar’s head was carved on 
the “head of an old bedstead, now remaining in the 
tower or lodge of that ancient house or castle, and 
the arms are now to be seen in the windows, and in 
other parts. And, what is of greatest authority, the 
original horn, tipped at each end with “silver cult, 
fitted with wreaths of leather to hang about the neck, 
with an old brass seal ring, a plate of brass with the 
sculpture of a horn, and several lesser plates of silver 
gilt, with fleur-de-lys, has been all along preserved by 
the lords of Borestall, under the name of “ Nigell’s 
horn,” and was in the year 1773 in the possession of 
John Aubrey, Esq. (son and heir of Sir Thomas 
