TE VOLE 153 
Within the precincts of Savernake Forest, the pro- 
perty of the Marquis of Ailesbury, near Marlborough, 
there is still existing a very old barn and part of a 
house, known as “‘ Wolf Hall,” or “ Wulf-hall.” It 
was the ancient residence of the Seymours, and when 
Henry VIII. married Lady Jane Seymour it was 
here that he came a-courting, here that he was 
married, and in this barn the wedding festivities are 
said to have taken place. In reply to an inquiry 
whether any tradition exists in the county to explain 
the name ‘“‘ Wolf Hall,” the Rev. A. C. Smith, of 
Yatesbury Rectory, Calne, has obligingly written as 
follows :—‘‘ It is supposed to have had nothing to 
do with the animal ‘ Wolf,’ but rather with ‘ Ulf, 
the owner’s name, if there was such a person, and 
in the Domesday record it is spelt ‘Ulfhall.* At 
the same time I must add that Leland in his Itine- 
rary (ix. 36) calls it in Latin ‘Lupinum villa 
splendida,’ and again in his poem on the birth of the 
Prince of Wales, afterwards King Edward VI, 
Incoluit villam, quee nomine dicta lupinum.’+ Bishop 
Turner also ( Bibl. Brit. Hibern.”) speaks of certain 
epistles written by Edward, the future Protector, 
son of John Seymour, ‘de Puteo Lupino, vulgo Wolf- 
hall.” So I am not so certain that the derivation is 
not from the animal. At all events, it is quite clear 
that no place could be more fitted for Wolves than 
the wild extensive forest of Savernake hard by ; 
indeed, if Wolves existed at all in England now, that 
would be just the very harbour for them.” 
* See Wilts Archeological Magazine, June 1875, p. 143. 
+ “Genethliacon illustrissimi Eluardi Principis Cambri,” 1543. 
