AN OLD HAJIPSHIRE MANOR HOUSE. li 



for (Icl'cnsivc purposes. Lying in a very secluded po.sition, 

 fit tlie edge of tlie forest, surrounded by moors and woods, and far 

 from any main roads, Moyle's Court must have been a locality 

 well suited for adventure and intrigue. Smuggling was formerly 

 rife in this district, and the scenes so graphically described in the 

 well-known novel, " Smugglers and Foresters," the plot of which 

 is laid in the New Forest, might well have occurred at this place. 



Some mansion, of earlier date than any portion of the present 

 building, without doubt, existed upon the same site, as fragments 

 of stonework, with rude carvings and arched doorways, may be 

 seen in the cellar and other portions of the premises, of a date as 

 early, or probably earlier, than that of Henry YII. 



John Lisle, who had married Alicia Beconsaw, the heiress of 

 JNIoyle's Court, occupies a somewhat prominent place in the history 

 of the Commonwealth. Colonel Lisle, although his name does 

 not appear as one of the signatories upon the death Avarrant of 

 Charles I., is reputed to have been responsible for that document, 

 being one of Cromwell's Privy Council, and as such is styled 

 " Lord Lisle " in Burnet's Hiutory. 



In a tract, printed in 1660, entitled "The mystery of the good 

 old cause briefly unfolded," is a catalogue of such members 

 of the late Long Parliament, that hold places both civil 

 and military, contrary to the Self-Denying Ordinance of April 

 3rd, 1645. John Lisle is described "as Barrister of the Middle 

 Temple, Master of St. Crosses in Dr. Lewis' place (St. Cross 

 Hospital, near Winchester), being a place for a divine with ,£800 

 a year, one of the Lords Commissioners of the Great Seal worth 

 £1,500 per annum, one of the King's Judges, afterwards became 

 a Cromwellian, and swore Oliver at his first installing Chief 

 IMagistrate. He was President of the High Court of Justice (so 

 called) which tried Sir Henry Slingsby, Dr. Hewit, &c., for treason 

 against the Protector, and passed sentence of death against them. 



At the Restoration, the Spirit of Revenge, which caused the 

 exhumation of the body of Ireton and other Roundheads Avho had 

 been prominent in the affairs of the Commonweallh, caused the 



