The Second Perambulation. 41 



year of Charles II., and nominally the same which is followed 

 to this day. 



To understand the cause of the difference in these perambu- 

 lations, we must, in fact, thoroughly understand the great move- 

 ments which had been going on during the previous years, and 

 the increasing power of the nobles and the people. From 

 Henry III. had been wrung the Charta de Foresta, the terms 

 of which had been settled before John's death. Still, little, or 

 scarcely anything, was put into practical effect. In 1297, 

 however, the Earls of Hereford and Norfolk not only refused to 

 accompany Edward I. to Flanders, but, upon their suspension 

 from their offices, issued a proclamation, complaining that the 

 two Charters of the liberties of the people were not observed. 

 On the 10th of October, a Parliament was assembled, and his 

 son passed the " Confirmatio Cartarum," to which Edward, now 

 at Ghent, assented. Still the two earls, from various causes, 

 were not satisfied ; and in 1298 demanded that the perambu- 

 lations of the different Forests should be made. In consequence, 

 during the summer of the next year, the King issued writs 

 to the sheriffs, promising that the commissioners should meet 

 about Michaelmas at Northampton.* 



This was done : and the perambulation of the New Forest 

 was carried out in strict accordance with the provisions of the 

 Charta de Foresta, for the jurors who were employed expressly 

 state that the bounds which they have determined were those 



* This is not the place to say more on this most important chapter of 

 English history. See, however, on the subject, The Great Charter: and 

 the Charter of the Forest, by Blackstone, Introduction, pp. Ix.-lxxii. 1759. 

 For the oppressions which still existed under the shelter of the Forest 

 Laws, see the preamble to the " Ordinatio Foreste," 34th Edward I. 

 Statutes of the Realm, vol. i. p. 147. 



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