Fores I Ojjlccrs and their Duties. 261 



Court, and to the Lord Chief Justice in Eyre. The Court of Swaiu- 

 mote, in which the verderers were judges, was supposed to be held three 

 times a year: the first court, fifteen days before Midsummer, for the 

 purpose of clearing the forest of all animals except deer for the next 

 month, which was called the fence month, which is the fawning 

 season, and the deer require to be undisturbed ; the next, fifteen days 

 before Michaelmas, when the herbage money for cattle was received, 

 and the swine admitted to feed on acorns and beechmast, called 

 pannage; and the third court forty days after Michaelmas, on the feast 

 of St. Martin. At that time the forest was again cleared, and no 

 animal except deer admitted from the 11th November until the 

 23rd April (old style), which period was called the Winter Haining. 

 At this court the presentments of the Court of Attachment were 

 received and enrolled, the smaller offences tried, and those of more 

 importance presented to the Justice in Eyre, to whom the rolls of this 

 court were certified at the next sessions of Eyre, and those rolls were 

 expected to contain an account of every offence committed, of every 

 deer killed, and of every tree felled in the forest ; by what warrant, and 

 of what price or value ; with every fine imposed, and the agistment 

 or money paid for the pasturage of cattle and pannage of swine. The 

 court of justice seat was to be held in each forest once in every three 

 years. 



Though many of these ancient regulations appear to be well calcu- 

 lated for the preservation of the forest, yet even as early as the reign 

 of Henry VIII. some other regulations were deemed necessary. In the 

 33rd year of that reign an Act was passed establishing a court called the 

 Court of General Surveyors of the King's Lands, which was to consist of 

 the king's surveyors, a treasurer, an attorney, the master of the woods, 

 auditors, general receivers, a clerk of the court, an usher, and messenger. 

 This court had a general superintendence of the lands belonging to the 

 Crown. The master of the woods was empowered, with the assent of 

 the court, to make sales of wood, &c., in the forest, and none could be 

 cut without his warrant and the assent of the said court. But in the 

 thirty-eighth year of the same reign that court was dissolved, and a new 

 one called the Court of Augmentations was created, and invested with 

 all the powers of the former court. One master and one surveyor for 

 the month, and one of each for the north of the Trent, were members of 

 it, and in each district wood sales were ordained to be made by the 

 certificate of the surveyor, and by the commission of the master of the 

 woods, with the consent of the Justice in Eyre. Both these courts seem 

 to have been very well constituted for the remedy of what was 

 defective as to the preservation of timber, and in the administration 

 and management of the forests under the forest laws. From the 

 account which has been given of the Courts of Attachments and 



