Mr. Hardy on a Red Deer's Antler. 215 



cloisters at the back of the Priory, about 9 feet below the 

 surface, and nearly at the foundation. The earth appears to 

 have been an accumulation of rubbish worked into soil." It 

 is the basal portion of the horn, and is 6 inches long; the 

 burr is 8^ inches in circumference, and the beam immediately 

 above it 7 inches. It indicates a size of antlers seldom seen 

 in modern Highland deer forests. Since its owner formed the 

 ingredients of many a monkish pasty, no doubt it belonged 

 to a "hart oi grease,'' and being the present of a monarch, — 

 to a " hart of ten," likewise ; for as Spenser says, as — 



" Each man's worth is measured by his weed (garment), 

 So harts by horns." 



Deer once ran wild on the Lammermoors, as Earl Percy and 

 his men, in 1372, found to their consternation.* There is a 

 prevalent notion that the Priors of Coldingham were mighty 

 Nimrods, but the ground for such a belief are not very sub- 

 stantial. That Houndwood was their hunting seatf is a pop- 

 ular fiction, constructed on the name of the locality, which 

 existed previous to its becoming a possession of Coldingham, 

 In the " Account Rolls" there is no allusion to a stud ever 

 having been maintained there. A single palfrey was the oc- 

 cupant of the Prior's stable at Coldingham. His other horses 

 were "sumpters" and "avers," — beasts of burden and draught. 

 William de Bamburgh alone, from 1357 to 1359, kept one or 

 two " hackneys." Farming, not hunting, was the Coldingham 

 " hobby," especially wool-growing, to encourage Avhich, the 

 church was adorned in 1370 with an image of St, Blase, the 

 patron of wool-combers. J The only Prior we read of indulg- 

 ing in the chase, was Robert Blackadder, a native of the 

 Merse, who while hunting in 1519, fell with his six attendants, 

 by the hands of his hereditary foe. Home of Wedderburn. 

 Malcolm the IV. and AVilliam the Lion chartered the monks 

 with a right of warren, and the privilege of the other game 

 also, without explicitly bestowing free-forestry, which was 

 conferred by Alexander III., in 1276.|| From the terms of 

 the writ the forest-grant chiefly respected the liberty to cut 

 timber. The monks, however, had " venyson" in their woods 

 of Brockholes, Ilarewood, and DencAvood, when let in farm 



* Buchanan's History of Scotland, II., p. 40. Ridpath's Border Hist. p. 348, 

 t Carr'b Coldingham, p. 26. 

 :;; Priory of Coldingham Inventories, &c., p. Ixi. 



II Coldingham Charters in Raine's Hist, of North Durham, Nos. XXVII., 

 XLY., and LXVII. 



