OF SELBORNE 19 



On the face of this expanse of waters, and perfectly secure 

 from fowlers, lie all day long, in the winter season, vast flocks of 

 ducks, teals, and widgeons, of various denominations ; where they 

 preen and solace, and rest themselves, till towards sun-set, when 

 they issue forth in little parties (for in their natural state they 

 are all birds of the night) to feed in the brooks and meadows ; 

 returning again with the dawn of the morning. Had this lake 

 an arm or two more, and were it planted round with thick covert 

 (for now it is perfectly naked), it might make a valuable decoy. 



Yet neither it's extent, nor the clearness of it's water, nor the 

 resort of various and curious fowls, nor it's picturesque groups of 

 cattle, can render this meer so remarkable as the great quantity 

 of coins that were found in it's bed about forty years ago. But, 

 as such discoveries more properly belong to the antiquities of this 

 place, I shall suppress all particulars for the present, till I enter 

 professedly on my series of letters respecting the more remote 

 history of this village and district. 



LETTER IX. 



TO THE SAME. 



BY way of supplement, I shall trouble you once more on this 

 subject, to inform you that Wolmer, with her sister forest Ayles 

 Holt, alias Alice Holt, 1 as it is called in old records, is held by 

 grant from the crown for a term of years. 



The grantees that the author remembers are Brigadier- General 

 Emanuel Scroope Howe, and his lady, Ruperta, who was a natural 

 daughter of Prince Rupert by Margaret Hughs ; a Mr. Mordaunt, 

 of the Peterborough family, who married a dowager lady Pem- 

 broke ; Henry Bilson Legge and lady ; and now Lord Stawel, their 

 son. 



The lady of General Howe lived to an advanced age, long 

 surviving her husband ; and, at her death, left behind her many 

 curious pieces of mechanism of her father's constructing, who 

 was a distinguished mechanic and artist, 2 as well as warrior ; 



1 " In Rot. Inquisit. de statu forest, in Scaccar. 36. Ed. 3. it is called Aisholt." 

 In the same, " Tit. Woolmer and Aisholt Hantisc. Dominus Rex habet unam 



" capellam in haia sua de Kingesle". " Haia, sepes } sepimentum, parcus : a Gall. 



haie and haye." Spelman's Glossary. 



2 This prince was the inventor of mezzotinto. [Not the inventor, who was 



Ludwig von Siegen, but the introducer of mezzotint into England.] 



