150 Wulfhall and the Seymours. 
“« And thus I bid you heartily farewell.” But my Lord’s Grace the 
Protector’s new style is—‘“ We have received your letters,” and “We 
bid you heartily farewell.” I have brought two of his letters which 
show this. Still, though he may not have often visited the old 
family house, he bought all he could round it ;:and the greater part 
of his vast possessions certainly lay in this county and in Somerset. 
Besides Wulfhall and Tottenham Lodge, the Duke of Somerset 
had a residence at Easton, a dissolved Priory near Pewsey. (Appen- 
dix, No. vu.) But from the Longleat Papers I have made the rather 
interesting discovery, that it certainly was his intention to build a 
new house, upon some very large scale, not exactly on the site of 
Wulfhall, but very near it, rather more towards Great Bedwyn. 
Those who are acquainted with that neighbourhood will know the 
high ground consisting of two wooded hills, with Wilton Common 
lying between them, called Bedwyn Brail. The word Brail used 
often to be pronounced Broyl, which is merely a provincial variety 
of one and the same word, signifying {in old French, “ Breuil,” in 
medieval Latin, “ Brolium,” or “ Bruelletum,” and in Anglo-Saxon, 
“ Broel,”) open pasture ground studded with thickets and timber. 
Near Ringmer, in Sussex, there is an old house, with large well- 
timbered park, called Broyle Place, most likely of the same origin. 
The ¢wo hills called Bedwyn Brail, or Broil, command a fine view 
down the Vale of Pewsey, westward; and on one of them this new 
palace was to have been built. In the letters written to Sir John 
Thynne by stewards and other local agents (Appendix, No. viii), are 
described the large preparations going on—the providing of water, 
searching for stone, enclosure of a park, brick making, orders for 
Purbeck stone, &. &c. One letter in particular dwells upon the 
progress they are making in a large conduit or channel for bringing 
water to the new house, and reports that this conduit had been dug 
to the length of 1600 feet, and part thereof 15 feetdeep. (Appen- 
diz No. viii., 3 and 10.) 
There were so many references in these letters to local names of 
mills and commons and the like, to be enclosed within the new park, 
that I determined to use my own eyes and tongue, and see if we 
could not make out something more abvut this palace which Protector 
