258 



Wilts Notes and Queries. 



They found themselves forbidden to chase the deer out of their own 

 cornfields, so that "they reaped not what they had sown"; and 

 were moreover deprived of their dogs and guns. St. Ravie, who, 

 as was generally conceived, had himself been the chief agent in 

 procuring the patent of enlargement, finding himself in consequence 

 in very bad odour with all the farmers around, was in the habit of 

 giving out that the real author of the evil was the Earl of Danby, 

 whose game was far more numerous than the king's. Pointing to 

 Cornbury House, the earl's residence, he would say — " that the 

 nobleman who lived in yonder white house was the man that would 

 undo them all ; — that the said earl was no good man ; and did not 

 love the king nor the country, [neighbourhood] : and that if war 

 should break out, he, St. Ravie, would be too hard for his lordship, 

 for through all that country-side he should have three to one 

 against him"; with other like passages. For these slanders the 

 Earl of Danby petitioned to lay his action. Sir William St. Ravie 

 sent in a written answer, generally denying the charges, but when 

 the cause came on for trial, he made no further appearance ; and 

 the House of Peers thereupon adjudged him to pay £100 to the 

 King, £500 to the Earl of Danby, to make submission to their 

 house, and to lie in the Fleet during their pleasure : and declared 

 the earl fully vindicated and cleared of all aspersions and misre- 

 presentations. — Lord's Journals. 



[Note. — It was in the year, 1853, that the Act for disafforesting Wichwood 

 passed the legislature ; and by an advertisement in The Times, December 

 20th, 1854, occupiers and borderers were directed to send in their various claims]. 



J. Waylen. 



Chalfield House. — Robert Eyre of West (or Little) Chalfield, 

 in a petition, dated 1648, states that he had greatly suffered by the 

 proximity of his house to the garrison which held Great Chalfield, 

 especially when the latter was besieged, " his own house being next 

 unto it," (that is, nearest, the real distance asunder being half a 

 mile). Before I met with this passage, the fact that Chalfield 

 House had been converted into a military post had entirely escaped 

 me. I would therefore beg to invite an affirmation of the circum- 

 stance from Mr. Matcham, whose connection with the Eyre family 



