174 



^ ilebicto of *' m)t i^ogal iFovfSts of 

 iEuQlanti/' Ijp g. ej)arlcs Cox, lL3l.^.,if.S.a. 



By the Hon. F. Strutt. 



HIS book, which is one of the series of the Anti- 

 quary Books pubHshed by Messrs. Methuen, 

 deserves some mention in this Journal, not only 

 because it contains probably the best account yet 

 written of the Royal Forests in the county of Derby and its 

 immediate neighbourhood — namely, the Forests of the High 

 Peak, Duffield Frith, Needwood, and Sherwood — but because 

 it is the work of the Rev. J. Charles Cox, to whom the Derby- 

 shire Archaeological Society owes its origin, who was a former 

 Editor of its Journal, and who has done so much to make the 

 history of his native county interesting and attractive to the 

 general reader. 



In attempting in a few lines to give a short account of this 

 work, we shall think it best to confine ourselves to the accounts 

 of the two forests which will, we think, be of the greatest 

 interest to Derbyshire readers ; and we shall also pass over the 

 eight preliminary chapters, which contain, more particularly, 

 an account of the laws, the officers, the courts, the customs, 

 and the general history of these Royal Forests. 



These chapters alone would afford interesting reading to, and 

 would be found most useful by, those who are taking up the 

 study of the sport and of the forest life in England six or seven 

 centuries ago. 



The forest of the High Peak was probably one of the most 

 extensive in England, and covered altogether an area of forty 



