212 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 



What probably first drew the attention of the Saxons to 

 this spot was the beautiful spring or fountain called Well- 

 head?* which induced them to build by the banks of that 

 perennial current ; for ancient settlers loved to reside by 

 brooks and rivulets, where they could dip for their water 

 without the trouble and expense of digging wells and of 

 drawing. 



It remains still unsettled among the antiquaries at what 

 time tracts of land were first appropriated to the chase 

 alone for the amusement of the sovereign. Whether our 

 Saxon monarchs had any royal forests, does not, I believe, 

 appear on record ; but the Constitutiones de Foresta, of 

 Canute, the Dane, are come down to us. We shall not, 

 therefore, pretend to say whether Woolmer-forest existed as 

 a royal domain before the conquest. If it did not, we may 

 suppose it was laid out by some of our earliest Norman 

 kings, who were exceedingly attached to the pleasures of 

 the chase, and resided much at Winchester, which lies at a 

 moderate distance from this district. The Plantagenet 

 princes seem to have been pleased with Woolmer, for 

 tradition says that King John resided just upon the verge, 

 at Ward-le-ham, on a regular and remarkable mount, still 

 called King John's Hill, and Lodge hill ; and Edward III. 

 had a chapel in his park, or enclosure, at Kingsley? 



ether, an hedge. When the good women call their hogs they cry sic, sic,* not 

 knowing that sic is Saxon, or rather Celtic, for a hog. Coppice or brushwood 

 our countrymen call rise, from hris, frondes ; and talk of a load of rise. Within 

 the author's memory the Saxon plurals, kousen and peason, were in common use. 

 But it would be endless to instance in every circumstance : he that wishes for 

 more specimens must frequent a farmer's kitchen. I have therefore selected 

 some words to show how familiar the Saxon dialect was to this district, since in 

 more than seven hundred years it is far from being obliterated. [G. W.] 



1 Well-head signifies spring-head, and not a deep pit from whence we draw 

 water. For particulars about which see Letter I. to Mr. Pennant. [G. W.] 



2 The parish of Kingsley lies between, and divides Woolmer-forest from 

 Ayles Holt-forest. See Letter IX. to Mr. Pennant. [G. W.] 



* Ska, porcus, apud Lacones ; un Porceau chez les Lacedemoniens : ce mot a 

 sans doute este pris des Celtes, qui disoent sic, pour marquer un porceau. Encore 

 aujour'huy quand les Bretons chassent ces animaux, ils ne disent autrement, que 

 sic, sic. Antiquity de la Nation et de la Langiie des Celtes, par Pezron. [G. W.] 



