WHITE CATTLE : AN INQUIRY INTO THEIR ORIGIN, ETC. 409 



"27. Besides the wilde beastes of the Forest, there are other wilde 

 beastes, which so long as they are remaining within the bandes and 

 limittes of the Forest they are subject to the punishment of the Lawes of 

 the Forest : such are, wild Gotes, Hares, and Conies. And there are also 

 diuers other w^ilde beastes, which although they do live and remaine 

 within the bounds and limits of the Forest, and are subject to the charge 

 and burthen of the Regarders of the Forest, yet they cannot be accounted 

 or taken to be of the Forest : such are wilde Horses, Bugalls, wilde Kine, 

 and such like."^ 



What is a forest; at least, in what sense did the early authori- 

 ties use the word? The 3rd Report of the Historical MSS. 

 Commission states, that among the Marquis of Bath's papers there 

 is a sixteenth-century treatise on forest law which sets itself to 

 explain •' What difference is between a forest, a chase, a warren, 

 and a parke;" and the 2nd Report of the same Commission 

 states, that among the Earl of Mount Edgecumbe's papers is — 

 The Boke of Forest Laivs, by William Fletewood, also written 

 in the 16th century; and it begins — "A forest is a territory of 

 certain ground properly bounded and meered." A later authority 

 states that — " A forest comprehends in it a chase, a park, and 

 a warren, and was a territory of woody grounds and fruitful 

 pastures, meered and bounded w4th irremovable marks, meres, 

 and boundaries. The wild beasts of the forest were five in 

 number — the hart, the hind, the hare, the boar, and the wolf." 

 If a park then be only a part of the territory within a forest, and 

 helped to make up a forest, how comes it that it is claimed for 

 our park cattle that they ranged through forests, and when a 

 section of it was fenced they were enclosed in the park by the 

 enclosure made 1 How comes it also that white cattle are not 

 mentioned among the wild beasts of the forests along with the 

 hart and hind, boar and wolf ? It certainly is difficult to know 

 what were the animals found in forests, as many editors take 

 liberties with the original text. Take, for example, Fitzstephen's 



^ Canute's Forest Laws, as in Harrison's Dtscription of England^ 

 1577 — *' 27. Sunt alise (praster feras forests) bestiae, quae dum inter septa et 

 sepes forestcB continentur, emendationi subiacent : quales sunt capreoli, 

 lepores et cuniculi. Sunt et alia quam plurima animalia quae quan- 

 quam infra septa forestae viuunt, et oneri et curae mediocrium subiacent 

 forestce, tamen nequa quam censeri possunt qualia sunt equi, bubali, 

 vaccas et similia." This clause has the marginal note — ^^ Buhali olim in 

 Anglia" 



