152 



Cranborne Chase. 



lands in the valley of the Nadder, especially against his vexatious 

 demand, at Old Harnham Bridge, close to Salisbury, of a certain toll 

 called Cheminage. This is from the French word chemin, a road, 

 and the toll was levied upon every person using the road through 

 the Chase, during one particular month only — called the fence 

 month — the fawning season : during which travellers were supposed 

 to be likely to disturb the does. This toll, an undeniable mark of 

 forest tyranny, continued to the very last : and possibly there may 

 be some veteran still alive — say eighty or ninety years old — who 

 may remember that upon Old Harnham Bridge a stag's head, or 

 pair of horns, used to be set up every year fifteen days before and 

 fifteen days after Midsummer Day, as a notice to pay cheminage, 

 fourpence for every waggon, and one penny for every pack-horse : 

 and the money was collected by virtue of a warrant from the steward 

 of the Chase. However, the poor Lady Abbess of Wilton's protest 

 was not listened to any more than any one else's. 



Other Clares, Earls of Gloucester, followed; other complaints 

 and more inquiries : but the Earls clung to the Perambulation of 

 John, and, to make things worse, got a fresh grant from the Crown 

 confirming their claim. But after the death of the last of the 

 Clares at the Battle o£ Bannockburn, in 1313, there were again no 

 male heirs. Three sisters succeeded, and by one or two following 

 marriages the Honour of Gloucester, Cranborne Chase and all, 

 came back once more into the hands of the Crown, in the person of 

 King Edward IV. There it remained for one hundred and forty 

 years, until the reign of King James I., who, in 1612, granted it 

 to Robert Cecil, Earl of Salisbury. During these one hundred and 

 forty years there were a great many legal transactions and decisions 

 which seem to have confined the Chase to the smaller bounds, but 

 there was great confusion. The forest rights had, perhaps, not 

 been enforced so strictly as before : and the consequence was, that 

 when the new owner, the Earl of Salisbury, being a subject, pro- 

 posed to re-assert and enforce the old rights, he became entangled 

 in a series of litigations. It was the Wiltshire people who were the 

 loudest and most positive that Cranborne Chase had nothing to do 

 with them, nor they with it. So the Earl began to find himself in 



