326 
ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE. 
to US. We shall not therefore pretend to say whether Wolmer- 
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 Wolmer ; for tradition says that 
king John resided just upon the verge, at Ward-le-ham, on a re- 
gular and remarkable mount, still called King John's Hill, and 
Lodge Hill ; and Edward HI. had a chapel in his park, or en- 
closure at Kingsley.* Humphrey, duke of Gloucester, and 
Richard, duke of York, say my evidences, were both, in their 
turns, wardens of Wolmer-forest ; which seems to have served 
for an appointment for the younger princes of the royal family, 
as it may again. 
I have intentionally mentioned Edward HI. and the dukes 
Humphrey and Richard, before king Edward H. because I have 
reserved, for the entertainment of my readers, a pleasant anec- 
dote respecting that prince, with which I shall close this letter. 
As Edward H. was hunting on Wolmer-forest, Morris Ken, 
of the kitchen, fell from his horse several times ; at which acci- 
dents the king laughed immoderately : and, when the chase was 
over, ordered him twenty shillings ;t an enormous sum for those 
days 1 Proper allowances ought to be made for the youth of this 
monarch, whose spirits also, we may suppose, were much ex- 
hilarated by the sport of the day : but, at the same time, it is 
reasonable to remark that, whatever might be the occasion of 
Ken's first fall, the subsequent ones seem to have been designed. 
The scullion appears to have been an artful fellow, and to have 
seen the king's foible ; which furnishes an early specimen of that 
his easy softness and facility of temper, of which the infamous 
Gaveston took such advantages, as brought innumerable calami- 
ties on the nation, and involved the prince at last in misfortunes 
and sufferings too deplorable to be mentioned without horror 
and amazement. 
* The parish of King^lej' lies between, and divides Wolmer-forest from Ayles Holt-forest. -See- 
Letter IX. to Mr. Pennant. 
The church at Kingsley is a remarkably mean-looking edifice. The tower has a striking re- 
semblance to a " dove-cote/' and the edifice bears out the assertion made by Mr. White that some 
of the Hampshire " places of worship make little better appearances than dove-cots. — D. 
t " Item, paid at the lodge at Wolmer, when the king was stag-hunting there, to Morris Ken, 
of the kitchen, because he rode before the king and often fell from his horse, at which the king 
laughed exceedingly, a gift, by command, of twenty shillings."— From a MS. in possession of 
I homas Astle, esq., contair^ng the private expenses of Edward 11. 
