DORSET AXn KING JOHX. 125 



cliurch. The slicriff, however, decided that William i\o "Wrotelmni, 

 who was the worst ofiender because he liad received the deer, was 

 the man who ought to have been summoned, and no doubt the 

 slieriff obtained the fine from him if he could not obtain it from 

 the man in sanctuary, but at the time the Roll was written neither 

 had paid. The entry runs as follows : — -"Kob' de Melecu'b ( ) 



v.m' ut p'set euirare forest' q'n fug'at i'eccl'ia p' venat' de q'bus 

 AViir de Wroteha' deb' resp' qui' recognouit se eas recepisse." 

 The clerk who made the entry left a space in which to write deb' 

 or redd' — "owes " or " returns " after Robert de ]\Ielcomb's name 

 — but he did not fill it in. This would, I imagine, leave it open to 

 the sheriff to come down on either of the gentlemen in payment of 

 the fine. 



The forests were very extensive, and it was not possible to guard 

 them perfectly, and it must have been a great temptation to 

 individuals, especially to villagers living on the borders of a forest, 

 to take a deer occasionally. That such ofi'enccs Avere of common 

 occurrence we gather from the frequency with which entries of the 

 breach of the forest laws occur in the Rolls. For the uffence of 

 taking venison, " p' capt' venat'," Adaiii, brother of Osbert, and 

 the village of Winford Eagle, were fined half a mark, whilst the 

 village of Kingston was fined two marks for waste — i.e., for 

 destruction made on the manor. 



Salt was a valuable commodity in these eai-ly times. On looking 

 over letters of licence to merchants in this reign, to see in what 

 the trade of the country chiefly consisted, I found that .ship-loads 

 of salt were frequently brought to and carried from England. The 

 salt was produced in evaporating pans dug in the seashore. The 

 sea flowed into them at high tide, the water was allowed to 

 evaporate, and the process was repeated until there was a suHicient 

 depth of salt to Ijc dug out. Salt pits were valuable property, 

 and any encroachment upon the King's was severely punished. 

 We are, therefore, not surprised to find that William de lindbui 

 had to pay 38s. 6d. — a large sum in those days — for encroachment 

 on salt pits, "p' p'p'stur'a saline." 



