Jin dDlb |)am]jshivc |Hiinor f)ousc mi vi 

 f pcraab to Dbton). 



By FREDERIC FANE. Esq. 



any one descending from the West side of the 

 plateau of the J^ew Forest into tlie valley of the 

 river Avon, by a cait track from Bratley Wood, to 

 the parish of EUingham, Moyle's Court is seen at 

 the end of a vista, through the woods. A dark 

 coloured brick mansion, its colour mellowed by 

 more tlian three hundred years' exposure — the 

 very high pitched roof is more that of an old 

 French Chateau, than of the houses to which we are accustomed 

 in this district. 



jNIr. Shore, who has ably written upon the antiquities of 

 Hampshire, states tliat the word " court " as applied to many of the 

 old manor houses in this country, refers Avithout doubt to the 

 former owners of the estate and the courts held to record the 

 manoiial rights attached to its possession. William de Solariis, 

 the founder of the Priory near here, must have been Lord of the 

 j\Ianor about a century after the time of the Conqueror. The next 

 possessor was Robert de Punchardon, whose family from the 

 time of Richard I., for several centuries, held this manor. In 

 the reign of Edward 11. {i-irca 1310), John de jNloellcs held 



