Whichwood Forest. 



This is .situated on the west side of Oxfordshire, between the rivers 

 "Kvenlode and Wainrnsh, each of which runs within about a mile of 

 tliis forest. At the early part of the present century it was almost 

 entirely encompassed by a stone wall, not, however, wholly built on 

 Crown lands, but comprehending various coppices and open wastes, 

 belonging to private proprietors, and not included in the'perambulation 

 of the Stuarts' time. At the time above mentioned the lands in this 

 forest belonging to tlie Crown amounted to 3,742 acres. The offices 

 appointed for the government and care of the forest were those of a 

 ranger, a lawnder (or keeper of the lawns), and four bailiffs or 

 keepers, with two verderers and a woodward. The offices of the 

 ranger, lawnder, and four liailifts appear to have been granted at 

 different times for different terms. In the 30th Elizabeth they were 

 granted to John Fortescue, Esquire, and Francis his son, for their 

 lives ; and in the 40th of the same reign the same offices were granted 

 to Henry, Lord Danvers, his heirs and assigns, so long as there should 

 be any heirs (male) of Sir John Eortescue, Knight, snrviving. In the 

 23rd James the First they were granted in fee to Henry, Earl of Danby ; 

 and lastly, in the 13th of Charles the Second, those offices having 

 reverted to the Crown by the forfeitnre of Sir John Danby, they were 

 again granted in fee to Edward, Earl of Clarendon, his heirs and 

 assigns, by the title of " The Office and the Officers of the Four Bailiffs 

 in the Forest of Whichwood," &c., and this patent was purchased in 

 the year 1751, from the descendants of the Earl of Clarendon, by the 

 Duke of Marlborough. According to ancient grants the fees used to 

 be as follows : — 



£ s. d. 

 Four Bailiffs, at 4d. per day each ... ... 24 G 8 



Kangershi]) „ Gd. per day ... ... ... !• 2 G 



Lawndership „ Gd. per day ... ... ... 2 G 



£42 11 8 



— which sum was paid to the ranger out of the produce of the forest 

 coppice from the 13th of James the First, and probably for a much 

 longer time, and no other payment was made until the above uato of 



