New-York.J. Mason Sep 11839

LEGENDS OF THE ISLE OF WIGHT.

WITH THE ADVENTURES OF THE AUTHOR IN SEARCH OF THEM.

BY ABRAHAM ELDER, ESQ.

BORTHWOOD forest was an extensive tract of wild and well-wooded country, lying on this side of Shanklin. You will see, when you pass that way, a singularly-pointed conical hill, with a peasant's cottage perched upon the top of it, rising out of a a comparatively level country. It is known to this day by the name of "The Queen's Bower." Its use, and the origin of its name, are as follow:

It was the custom of our Norman ancestors, when they gave a grand hunting entertainment, to select an open space, as near as might be in the centre of their hunting-ground; and choosing some natural mount, or forming an artificial one, they erected upon it a pavilion, in which were placed the ladies, and such of their company as did not intend personally to take a part in the chase. A large portion of the forest was then surrounded by as many of the chief retainers as could be got together. These advanced in a circle, making a great noise, gradually contracting the area of the circle, until at length all the beasts that they had disturbed were driven into the appointed hunting-ground. Here the knights who had assembled for the chase lay in wait for them near the openings through which it was probable that the game would issue from the forest. The knights were generally on horseback, armed with bows and arrows, and attended with their squires holding their dogs in leash. As the deer passed, they shot their arrows, and let their dogs loose upon the game, and generally with fatal effect; for skill in every branch of the art of hunting appears to have been the great test of a man's being a gentleman.

The hill still called the Queen's Bower derives its name from the circumstance of Isabella de Fortibus, the lady of the Isle of Wight in the reign of Edward the First, having there erected her hunting-pavilion. This lady, so celebrated in the local history of the island, was sometimes styled the Queen of the Isle of Wight; and, indeed, though feudally subject to the Crown of England, her authority within her own dominions was quite despotic, and she lived in her castle of Carisbrook in a magnificence and state worthy of royalty.

A very curious account of a hunting of this lady, or Queen of the Isle of Wight, in Borthwood forest, is preserved in an ancient manuscript* in the British Museum. It appears that a certain knight visited her court in disguise; and Isabella, wishing to satisfy her doubts as to whether he was come of noble blood or not, without committing a breach of ancient hospitality by asking him questions, proposes a grand hunting-match, that he might prove his noble breeding by his skill in the chase. The manuscript is as follows :

"On the morrow, whan yt was day,
To her men she gan to say,

* Ancient MS. Brit. Mus. Harl. MSS. 2252, 44. Wart. Eng. Poet. vol. i. p. 198.

To-morrow, whan it is daylight,
Lok ye be all redy dight,
With your houndis more and lesse
In forrest to take my gresse,*
And thare I will myself be,
Your games to beholde and see,'
Ippomedon had houndis three,
That he brot from his countree,
Whan they were to the wood gone,
This ladye and her men ichone, t
And with hem her houndis ladde,‡
All that any houndis hadde,
Syr Tholomew forgate he nought
His maistres houndis thythere he brought,
That many a day he had run ere ;
Full well he thought to note hem there.
Whan they came to the lande on hight,
The queen's pavylyon there was pight,
That she might see all the best
All the game of the forrest;
And to the ladye brought many a best,
Herte and hynd, buck and doe,
And other bestis many mo.
The houndis that were of gret prise
Plucked down deer all atryse.
Ippomedon, he with his houndis throo, ||
Drew down both buck and doo,
More he took with houndis three
Than all that othir compagnie.
Their squyers undyd their deer,
Eche man after his manere:
Ippomedon a deer gede unto,
That full konningly gon he it undo, T
So fair, that very son he gan to dight
That both him byheld squyre and knighte:
The ladye looked out of her pavylyon,
And saw him dight the venyson;
There she had grete daintee,
And so had alle that dyd hym see.
She sawe all that he down threu,
Of huntynge she wist he could enou,
And thought in her heart then
That he was come of gentilmen.
She bad Jason her men to calle,
Home then passed gret and smalle.
Home thei come soon anon,
This ladye to her meat gan gon,**
And of venerytt had her fill,
For they had taken game at will."

Thus this royal lady having ascertained that Sir Ippomedon was a good shot with a bow, that his greyhounds were of the right breed, and that he knew how to cut up his deer when he had brought it down, goes home to dinner satisfied that the stranger knight is a gentleman, every inch of him.

* Gresse-game.

Pight-pitched.

+ Ichone each one, i. e. all.
|| Three.

** To her meat gan gon-went to dinner.

Ladde-led.

To undo a deer, is to cut it up.

†† Venery-hunting.