to the manor of Tichborne, near
Winchester, as far back as two centuries before the Norman Conquest.

About the middle of the twelfth century the then head of the family
married Mabel, only daughter and heiress of Sir Ralph de Lamerston, of
Lamerston, in the Isle of Wight, by which he acquired considerable
estates in that part of England, in addition to his own possessions in
Hampshire. After many years of wedded happiness, during which the Lady
Mabel became celebrated for her kindness and care of the poor, and
death approaching, she besought her husband to grant her the means of
leaving behind her a charitable bequest, in the shape of a _dole_, or
measure of bread, to be distributed annually, on the 25th of March
(the Feast of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary), to all
needy and indigent people who should apply for it at the hall door.
The said bread was to be the produce of a certain piece of ground
containing an area of fifteen acres, and of known value; but should
the applicants be greater in number than the measures produced,
twopence in money was to be given as the _dole_.

Lady Mabel's husband was induced to consent to his wife's request,
only on condition of her being able to crawl or walk round the piece
of ground demanded--a condition of apparent impracticability, from the
fact of her having been bedridden for many years previous; and this
task was to be performed while a certain brand, or billet of wood, was
burning on the fire in the hall at Tichborne. The dame, nothing
daunted, ordered her attendants to carry her to the place she had
selected, where, being set down, she seemed to receive a renovation of
strength, and, to the surprise of admiring onlookers, she succeeded in
crawling round several rich and goodly acres within the required time.
The field which was the scene of Lady Mabel's extraordinary feat
retains the name of "Crawls" to the present day.

On the task being completed, the lady was re-conveyed to her chamber,
and, summoning the family to her bed-side, she proceeded in a most
solemn manner to deliver a prophecy respecting the future inheritors
of Tichborne--predicting its prosperity as long as the annual _dole_
existed, and leaving her malediction on any of her descendants who
should discontinue or divert it, and declaring that, when such event
should happen, _the old house would fall, the family would become
extinct from the failure of heirs-male_, and that--as a final warning
of