296 Customs of Wishforcl and Barf or d in Grovely Forest. 



Whitmonday' at night every Saturday and half-holiday once, videlicet in the 

 Evening ; and every Holiday and Sabbath Day twice, videlicet in the Morning 

 and in the Evening.- 



(5th.) Item, The Lords and Freeholders of Wishford for themselves and' 

 their Tenants have ever by Antient Custom and time out of mind used* to 

 fell in Grovely and in Right may lawfully fell and bring away about Holy 

 Thursday '" every year one Load of Trees upon a Cart to be drawn by strength 

 of People, and the Lord Freeholders of Barford for themselves and their 

 Tenants have used and in Right may fetch'' one other Load of Trees on 

 Whitson munday upon a Cart to be drawn also by strength of People." 



(6th.) Item. All the Lanchards,^ Balkes,' Waters, and other Boundaries 

 whatsoever, which divided the Forest from [the] other Liberties Parishes or 

 Hundreds, are and ever have been accounted parcel of the Forest, 'iltem 6 

 is not found in MS. B.] 



(7th.) Item. The aforesaid Lords, Freeholders, and Tenants of Great 

 Wishford and Barford St. Martin have had or of Right should ever time out 

 of mind have, yearly brought unto them against every Whitsunday by the 

 Ranger or his Assigns one fat Buck, the one half to Wishford and the other 

 to Barford'" to make merry withal amongst the Neighbours. And the Ranger 



1 — 2 " Whitsunday, every half -holiday and sabbath day twice " : B. This 

 usage was commuted by Philip, Earl of Pembroke, for a yearly rent- 

 charge of M, " because it was a prejudice to his deer in that chace, being 

 about fawning time." See below. Subsequently, in 1703, Thomas, Earl of 

 Pembroke, again exchanged this rent (and the arrears) for a sum of £260. 

 And Sir T. Howe, for £220, thereout, finally granted a rent-charge of £\0 

 per annum on the Manor of Stapleford, " to repair and find ornaments for 

 Wishford Church," considering that the old custom of bough bearing had 

 been used to adorn the Church. 



3 " And all " : B. 

 4 — 5 i< Used to fetch on Holy Thursday " : B. 



6 — 7 " Their load of trees upon Whitsunday upon a cart to be drawn home 

 with mens strength " : B. 



^ Lanchards, sometimes spelt " Lanshers," or " Landshares," — le lansher 

 de West Harnham, occurs in St. Nicholas' Hosp. Cartulary, pp. 124, 134. 

 " A lanshard is a strip of greensward dividing two pieces of arable land in the 

 common fields." Davis, Gen. View of Wilts Agrictdture, 1809. Dr. Straton 

 defines the " lanshard " or landshare, as the borderers' headland between 

 the ballc and iheix: field. They turned their plough on it. 



'' Baulks, or meres, are extensive green paths or boundaries. Wilts Arch. 

 Mag., xvii., 294. 



'» Falstaff exclaims to the Merry Wives (v. 5) "Divide me like a brib'd- 

 Bucke, each a Haunch." According to Aubrey (Nat. Kist. of Wilts, ed. 

 Britton, 4 p., 1847, ch. x.. p. 58, " The deer of the forest of Groveley were 

 the largest fallow deer in England," though in one exceptional instance the 

 finest buck of all, weighing 8 score 1 lb., was from Cranbourne Chase, and 

 was 21b. heavier than the monarch of Groveley, about 1650. 



