238 



Notes on the History of Merc. 



at some period, to render Mere more accessible by this route than 

 through the natural clayey soil of the district, which in a wet season 

 could have been scarcely passable. To the south of Mere was the 

 Forest of Grillingham, to the West the Forest of Selwood. It 

 seems that the inhabitants of Mere claimed certain rights of 

 herbage and pannage, over portions of this Forest of Grillingham, 

 which, when the disafforestation took place in 1651, were acknow- 

 ledged by the authorities by allotting eighty acres of land to be 

 managed by trustees, for the poor of Mere for ever, and now exist 

 in the shape of the Mere Forest Charity. 



Nearly the whole of the land south of the town, except those 

 portions immediately surrounding the several homesteads, was 

 common, and remained as such till 1806-7, when an Act of 

 Parliament was passed for its enclosure. 



Boundary. 



The boundary line between Grillingham Forest and Mere was as 

 follows (10 Elizabeth) (see Hutchins , Dorset) : — 



"From the Bridge of Huntingford and so by the water to the ground of 

 Thomas Chaffyn Esq., ealled Horsington, in the county of Wilts ; which Horsing- 

 tone of old time was a wood, which is now wasted and destroyed, thence East- 

 wards leaving the said watercourse by the hedge of the said ground called 

 Horsingtone, as the bounds there goeth between the counties of Wilts and 

 Dorset, unto the north-end of the purpresture now of Christopher Dodington 

 Esq., and from thence eastward, overthwart Whitehill which was of old time 

 called the Leighe, as the said bounds goeth between the said counties of Wilts 

 and Dorset, unto the north side of the old Hayes ; and from thence eastward in 

 the north part of the ground of John, Lord Stourton, called Haselholte, all wayes 

 as the bounds goeth between the said two counties unto an oak, standing by 

 Leigh Marsh near unto Haselholt pound ; and from the said oak eastward, all 

 the ways as the bounds goeth between the said two counties unto the south end 

 of the lane called Barrow Street Lane, and from thence as the said bounds goeth 

 between the said two counties unto the corner of Mere Park, adjoining to the 

 north side of Pymperleygh hedge ; and from thence along by the hedge of the 

 said park, unto the water called Gowge Pole, of old called Horeappledore, and 

 from thence along by the Hedge of the said Park, called Double Hedge, in the 

 north side of Cowridge." 



At an inquisition made at Mere, 18th of November, 1300, con- 

 cerning lands and tenements of which Edmund, Earl of Cornwall, 



