238 Notes on the History of Mere. 
at some period, to render Mere more accessible by this route than 
through the natural clayey soil of the district, which in a wet season 
could have been scarcely passable. ‘To the south of Mere was the 
Forest of Gillingham, to the West the Forest of Selwood. It 
seems that the inhabitants of Mere claimed certain rights of 
herbage and pannage, over portions of this Forest of Gillingham, 
which, when the disafforestation took place in 1651, were acknow- 
ledged by the authorities by allotting eighty acres of land to be 
managed by trustees, for the poor of Mere for ever, and now exist 
in the shape of the Mere Forest Charity. 
Nearly the whole of the land south of the town, except those 
portions immediately surrounding the several homesteads, was 
common, and remained as such till 1806-7, when an Act of 
Parliament was passed for its enclosure. 
BounDARY. 
The boundary line between Gillingham Forest and Mere was as 
follows (10 Elizabeth) (see Hutchins’ Dorset) :— 
“From the Bridge of Huntingford and so by the water to the ground of 
Thomas Chaffyn Esq., called Horsington, in the county of Wilts; which Horsing- 
tone of old time was a wood, which is now wasted and destroyed, thence East- 
wards leaving the said watercourse by the hedge of the said ground called 
Horsingtone, as the bounds there goeth between the counties of Wilts and 
Dorset, unto the north-end of the purpresture now of Christopher Dodington 
Esq., and from thence eastward, overthwart Whitehill which was of old time 
called the Leighe, as the said bounds goeth between the said counties of Wilts 
and Dorset, unto the north side of the old Hayes ; and from thence eastward in 
the north part of the ground of John, Lord Stourton, called Haselholte, all wayes 
as the bounds goeth between the said two counties unto an oak, standing by 
Leigh Marsh near unto Haselholt pound; and from the said oak eastward, all 
the ways as the bounds goeth between the said two counties unto the south end 
of the lane called Barrow Street Lane, and from thence as the said bounds goeth 
between the said two counties unto the corner of Mere Park, adjoining to the 
north side of Pymperleygh hedge; and from thence along by the hedge of the 
said park, unto the water called Gowge Pole, of old called Horeappledore, and 
from thence along by the Hedge of the said Park, called Double Hedge, in the 
north side of Cowridge.” 
At an inquisition made at Mere, 18th of November, 1300, con- 
cerning lands and tenements of which Edmund, Earl of Cornwall, 
