Social Life in the Old Forests. 



on the subject. Without at all leaning on the etymology which 

 has been before given,* we must remember that an ancient forest 

 did not simply mean a space thickly covered with trees, but 

 also wild open ground, and lawns and glades.f The word hurst, 

 which, as we have seen, is so common a termination throughout 

 the district, means a wood which produces fodder for cattle, 

 answering to the Old High-German spreidach.$ The old forests 

 possessed, if not a large, some scattered population. For them 

 a special code of laws was made, or rather gradually developed 

 itself. Canute himself appointed various officers Primarii, our 

 Verderers ; Lespegend, our Eegarders ; and Tinemen, our 

 Keepers. The offences of hunting, wounding, or killing a deer, 

 striking a verderer or regarder, cutting vert, are all minutely 

 specified in his Forest Law, and punished, according to rank and 

 other circumstances, with different degrees of severity. The 

 Court of Swanimote was, in a sense, counterpart to the Courts 

 of Folkemote and Portemote in towns. A forest was, in fact, 

 a kingdom within a kingdom, with certain, well-defined laws, 

 suited to its requirements, and differing from the common 

 law of the land. The inhabitants had regular occupations, 



* See chapter ii. p. 10, footnote. There are a number of derivations 

 given for the word, but none are satisfactory. 



f Manwood dtfims a forest -i a certaine territorie of woody grounds and 

 fruitful pastures." A Treatise of the Lan-es of the Forest, London, 1619. 

 Chap. i. f. 18. 



J See Mr. Davies's paper on the Eaces of Lancashire, Transactions of 

 the Philological Society, 18oo, p. 258. In Domesday, as before, under Cla- 

 tinges, p. xviii. a, we find, " Silva inutilis," that is, a wood, I should suppose, 

 which has no beech, oak, ash, nor holly, but only yews or tliorns. Again 

 under Borgate, p. iv. b, we find, " 1'astura qua) reddebat xl. porcos est in 

 forest a Kegis." The woods, as before mentioned, at pp. 11, 12, foot-note, 

 are always, in Domesday, rated by the number of swine they maintain. 



See Mamvood, as before, ff. !-.">. 



K 2 -r. 



