Many historians tell us that King John granted a charter of forests at the same time with Magna Charts. This is in deed distinctly asserted by Matthew Paris, who even professes to give the charter at full length. But the statement is entirely unfounded ; the concessions obtained from John in regard to the royal forests are, as mentioned above, contained in the Great Charter : the Carta de Forests, which M. Paris quotes, is a charter granted by Henry III. in the 9th year of his reign (A.D. 1224). This was the first separate charter of forests. It is commonly printed in the statutes from the Inspeximus, or confirmation of it, in the '28th of Edward I. (A.D. 1299). The subsequent legislation upon this subject is principally to be found in the following statutes :—The Customs and Assize of the Forest, or the Articles of Attach ments of the Forests (of which the date is not known); the Ordinatio Forests: of the 33 Edw. I. (1305); the Ordinatio Forestte of the 34 Edw. I. (1306) ; the 1 Edw. III. c. 8 (1327); and the 7 Ric. II. a. 8 (1384 One of the chief things mended upon in the early national demand for the reform of the forest laws, was the mitigation of their severe code of punishments. The Conqueror, who, as the Saxon Chronicle' says, loved the red deer as if he had been their father, is affirmed to have visited the slaughter of one of these animals with a heavier penalty than the murder of a human being. And it would appear from the charter of Henry III. that the offence had previously been punishable not only with mutilation, but with death. "No man from henceforth," says the 10th clause or chapter of the charter, "shall lose either life or member for killing of our deer ; but if any man be taken and convict for taking of our venison, he shall make a grievous fine, if he have anything whereof; and if he have nothing to lose, he shall be imprisoned a year and a day : and after the year and day ex pired, if he can find sufficient sureties, he shall be delivered ; and it' not, he shall abjure the realm of England." According to Matthew Paris (whose authority how ever, on such a matter, is not worth much), Richard I. had already repealed the penalties of mutilation for offences against the forest laws.
The forest laws, as already mentioned, were administered by their own officers and courts. The officers were thejus tices in eyre of the forest; the wardens or warders ; the verderers, foresters, agis ters, regarders, keepers, bailiffs, beadles, The four principal forests in. England were accounted to be, the New Forest, Sherwood, Dean, and Windsor. Among the others were Epping, in Essex ; Dart moor in Devonshire ; Wichwood, in Ox fordshire; Salcey, Whittlebnry, and Rock ingham, in Northamptonshire ; Waltham, in Lincolnshire ; Richmond, in York shire, &e.
The oppressive powers vested in the crown by the forest laws, after having to a great extent long ceased to be exercised, were revived by Charles I., and endea voured to be turned to account in replen ishing his empty exchequer. At the Court of Justice-seat (which was the supreme forest court, and held every year before the chief justice in eyre of the forest) held in 1632, before the earl of Holland as chief justice in eyre south of the Trent, large sums of money were ex torted from many persons, chiefly as com positions for alleged encroachments on the ancient boundaries of the forests, al though after a quiet possession of three or four centuries. This accordingly was
one of the grievances to which the Long Parliament directed its earliest attention. One of the Acts which that assembly passed in its first session (the 16 Char. I. c. 16), was entitled ' An Act for the Cer tainty of Forests, and of the Meets, Meets, Limits, and Bounds of the Forests,' which set forth in the preamble, that not only judgments had of late been given by which the bounds of some of the forests had been variously extended, or pre tended to extend, beyond the bounds com monly known, and formerly observed, to the great grievance and vexation of many persons having lands adjoining ; but there had also been some endeavours or pretences "to set on foot forests in some parts of this realm and the dominion of Wales, where, in truth, none have been or ought to be, or, at least, have not been used of long time." It is therefore enacted that the bounds of every forest shall be those commonly known, reputed, used, or taken to be its bounds ; and that all judgments, &c., to the contrary shall be void; that no place where no Justlee seat or other forest court had been held within sixty years should be accounted forest; and that commissions should be issued for ascertaining the bounds of forests as they stood in the 20th year of the preceding reign, and beyond which they should not thenceforth be extended. Since the passing of this Act, the old forest laws may be considered as having been practically abolished, and the offices connected with their administration and execution turned into little better than sinecures.
The 11th chapter of the Carta Forestte of Henry III. contains the following curious provision :—" Whatsoever arch bishop, bishop, earl, or baron, coming to us at our commandment, passeth by our forest, it shall be lawful for him to take and kill one or two of our deer, by view of our forester, if he be present ; or else le shall cause one to blow an horn for him, that he seem not to steal our deer; and likewise they shall do returning from us as it is aforesaid." As this law is still unrepealed, any bishop or nobleman may shoot one or two of the deer if he should pass through any of the royal forests in going to or returning from parliament. Hunting was formerly so common or universal an episcopal amusement, that the crown is still entitled, at the death of every bishop, to have his kennel of hounds, or a composition in lieu thereof. Auck land Park, and certain other demesnes, formerly held of the bishop of Dur ham by forest services; "particularly," says Camden, " upon his great huntings, the tenants in these parts were bound to set up for him a field-house, or tabernacle, with a chapel, and all manners of rooms and offices ; as also to furnish him with dogs and horses, and to carry his pro vision, and to attend him during his stay for the supply of all conveniences. But now all services of this kind are either let fall by disuse, or changed into pecu niary payments." [GAME Laws; WOODS AND FORESTty