FORESTRY IN THE PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE. 151 



Dr Nisbet, 1 who presumably misunderstood a passage in Stubbs. 2 

 The " Assize of Woodstock" in no way modified the status of 

 the forest law, whatever modifications it may have introduced 

 into details. It is the contemporary Dialogus de Scaccario which 

 contrasts the forest laws, which are the outcome of the king's 

 will and pleasure, with the common law. 3 But the Dialogue is a 

 descriptive treatise, not an enactment. A misconception of the 

 nature of warren leads to the statement that it was " an in- 

 expensive gift for the king to give to a camp follower or 

 underling," and this supposititious practice is held up for our 

 admiration and imitation in "settling soldiers on small holdings 

 as a reward for good service during the war." We may contrast 

 this curious perversion of law and history with Mr G. J. Turner's 

 opinion that "by the middle of the fourteenth century it is 

 probable that the majority of lords of manors enjoyed this right 

 in virtue of grants to them or their ancestors." 4 



Minor matters we may note are the fantastic etymology of 

 "purlieu," which Mr Stebbing takes over from Manwood, 5 and 

 the translation, " No Man from henceforth shall lose neither Life 

 nor Members for Killing our Deer," which was hardly worth 

 borrowing from Manwood's editor, Nelson, when the actual text 

 of the Charter of the Forest of 12 17 is easily accessible. 6 



In the modern history of forestry and timber there is perhaps 

 not so much difficulty in avoiding misstatement of facts, but we 

 find reason to dissent from Mr Stebbing's view of the economic 

 position of timber in this country. We may indicate the general 

 trend of his argument by brief quotations. 



"The watchful care of the Parliaments of this period, and 

 their enactments to ensure the proper management and protec- 

 tion of the British woods, were solely due to a recognition that 

 the upkeep of the country's fleets was dependent on the 

 maintenance of a sufficient area of British woods managed on 

 the lines most suitable for the production of the national re- 

 quirements." 



1 Elements of British Forestry, p. 20. Our Forests and Woodlands (1909), 

 p. 18. 



2 Constitutional History (1S74), >• PP- 4° 2 :4°3- 



3 Lib. i., cap. xi. Cf. Pollock and Maitland, History of English LaTu(iSgS), 

 i. p. 177. 



4 Select Pleas of the Forest -(Selden Society), p. cxxiii. The italics are ours. 



5 Purlieu is the same word as p urate, and has nothing to do with "pure" 

 (see O.E.D., s.v.). 



6 Art 10. Nullus de cetero amittat uitam uel membra pro uenacione nostra. 



