26 MOEFE FOREST. 



resting. Among tliem are Bowman's Hill, Bow- 

 man's Pit, and "Warrener's Dead Fall — names 

 carrying back ttie mind to times wlien bowmen 

 were the reliance of English leaders in battles 

 fought on the borders, and before strongholds like 

 the Castle of Bridgnorth. Gratacre, and Gratacre Hall, 

 suggest a passing notice of a family which witnessed 

 many such encounters, and which remained associated 

 with a manor here from the reign of Edward the 

 Confessor to the time when Earl Derby sought 

 shelter as a fugitive after the Battle of Worcester. 

 As Camden describes it, the old hall must have been 

 a fitting residence truly for a steward of the forest. 

 It had, in the middle of each side and centre, 

 immense oak trees, hewn nearly square, set with 

 their heads on large stones, and their roots upper- 

 most, from which a few rafters formed a complete 

 arched roof. 



The Hermitage, with its caves hewn out of the solid 

 sand rock, by the road which led through the forest 

 in the direction of Worfield, meets us with the tra- 

 dition that here the brother of King Athelstan came 

 seeking retirement from the world, and ended his 

 days within sight of the queenly Severn. Besides 

 tradition, however, evidence exists to shew that this 



