. The Houblon family, its story and times. ights to Lord Riche,the latter now sold him the manorial rights hithertonever separated from those of the soil, which had nowpassed by purchase to Lord Morley, owner of GreatHallingbury.^ It was the grandson of this Lord Morley—the twelfthlord—owner of the estates sequestrated by the Parlia-ment in consequence of his faithful service to the royalcause during the civil wars, whose sad story we haverelated in a former chapter.* It was perhaps not strangethat the lord of the manor would fain have possessed thesoil also ; but it was not so to be, for the
. The Houblon family, its story and times. ights to Lord Riche,the latter now sold him the manorial rights hithertonever separated from those of the soil, which had nowpassed by purchase to Lord Morley, owner of GreatHallingbury.^ It was the grandson of this Lord Morley—the twelfthlord—owner of the estates sequestrated by the Parlia-ment in consequence of his faithful service to the royalcause during the civil wars, whose sad story we haverelated in a former chapter.* It was perhaps not strangethat the lord of the manor would fain have possessed thesoil also ; but it was not so to be, for the royalists estateswere sold, after endless litigation, by Act of Parliament,and passed into the hands of the Speaker of the Houseof Commons, and two generations later into those of the ^ History of the Forest of Essex, p. 173. 2 A hatchet was formerly the symbol of the woodward, and he deliveredit on his knees to the Chief Justice at the justice-seat. Ibid., p. 176.^ Morant, Indentures, dated 30 January 1576, ii. 509.* See ante, p. waso b< <o QO oQ s bO Z< HOME 107 Houblons. The forest was thus their most cherishedpossession, though they shared some of its rights witha neighbour. There is on the forest of Hatfield the remains of agreat tree, said by many to be the actual Domesdayoak which is shown on the Survey as standing on thatspot. It owns the curious name of Doodle, owing itsorigin, as some suppose, to a corruption of the worddoovi: the Oak of Doom ; because trespassers againstthe forest laws had in past times paid the penaltyof their crimes by hanging on its great branches.^If not the actual oak of the Survey, the Doodle Oakis doubtless its descendant, just as the tall, stalwartyoung tree now standing close beside its huge ruinsis undoubtedly the child of its old age, and was grownfrom one of its acorns. The giant now lies on itsside, a mighty wreck, weather-worn and bleached bycenturies. All the riohts of the forest of Hatfield did not liein the hands of
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