ITS HISTORY. 



then the owner of the dogg shal be gilty of the 

 greatest offence. ..." 



These laws were put in force by Forest Courts 

 maintained for the purpose of resisting encroach- 

 ments, and protecting the deer and the vert. 

 These were the Court of Attachment,^ or forty-day 

 court, presided over by four verderers, who were 

 chosen by the freeholders of the county, hearing 

 cases against offenders, in the first instance, and 

 dealing at once with offences when the damage 

 was not more than fourpence ; the Court oj 

 Swainmote, also presided over by the verderers, 

 but assisted by a jury of freeholders in the Forest,- 

 who tried offenders, but if found guilty, sentence 

 was reserved for the highest court, ox Justice scat, 

 held at much longer intervals, and presided over 

 by the Chief Justice in Eyre. In addition all 

 general questions of right were tried by a jury of 

 freeholders before the same authority, which from 

 time to time issued orders for the regulation of 

 the Forest. The following quotations of orders 

 from the Court Rolls as recently as the beginning 

 of the last century are fair illustrations of the 

 working of these courts : — 



^ Some si:)eak also of a Cheyne Court for the expeditation 

 of dogs. 



- In the Stowe Collection, recently acquired by the British 

 Museum, there is the transcript of a charge delivered to the 

 jury and officers constituting the Swainmote Court in 1634, 

 and the Court seems to have been presided over on that 

 occasion by one of the judges. It is probable that he was a 

 creature of Charles I., and that this unusual step was taken to 

 enable him to allay the rising irritation, felt at that time against 

 the Forest laws, and the strained interpretation which Charles 

 sought to place upon them. A large part of the charge is 

 occupied by an elaborate vindication of the king's rights. 



