SIR TIMOTHY TYRELL, NINTH MASTER. 133 



walls of Old England. About the same time this Master of 

 the Buckhounds obtained a similar grant of Hickshill in 

 Barnes wood Forest, county Bucks, at the fine of 1,650^., and a 

 yearly rent of 2/. 4s. Sd. reserved to the Crown for ever with 

 a tenure of socage. By virtue of this grant, Sir Timothy, 

 his heirs and successors, acquired waifs, strays, felons' goods, 

 and free warren within the same, and freedom from tithes, 

 with licence to construct woodlands into arable or pasture. 



As the Shotover Forest grant gave rise to some curious 

 complications between this Master of the Buckhounds, the 

 Admiralty, and the royal prerogative (in connection with 

 the forest laws), and as the proceedings exhibit some quaint 

 phrases in rural economy at this period, perhaps a brief 

 account of these bickerings may be admissible here. It seems, 

 according to a survey made by the Admiralty, that about 

 this time there were 32,366 trees suitable for shipbuilding, 

 in Shotover Forest, which were valued at 11,321Z. Is. 8d. 

 Most of this timber was claimed by the Admiralty, but 

 whenever that Board sent any of their officials to take view 

 of the trees they proposed to fell, the Master of the Buck- 

 hounds and his keepers came to loggerheads with them, and 

 prevented them executing their commissions. As a natural 

 consequence, complaints were made on both sides, but it 

 seems that the influence of the Master of the Buckhounds 

 with the King, to ward off the Admiralty, eventually pre- 

 vailed, and the disafibrestation of the forest proceeded slowly 

 but surely until it was, by the grantees, denuded of all its 

 best timber. Among those who participated in the spoil 

 was Archbishop Laud, who obtained a great quantity of 

 timber from the forest to complete St. John's College, Oxford. 

 When all of the best trees were cut down and disposed of, 

 Sir Timothy Tyrell was summoned to attend at the chambers 

 of the Attorney-General, in Lincoln's Inn, for the purpose of 

 having the validity of his grant investigated. And when 

 the dispute was formally submitted to Charles I., he decided 

 in favour of his Master of the Buckhounds, and so the matter 

 ended. A rather remarkable feature (but not an uncommon one 



