Ban Forests. 31 



an increased value of their possessions by colonization, 

 in which especially the slaves or serfs were utilized. 

 These often became freedmen, paying rent in product 

 or labor, and acquiring the rights of usufruct in the 

 property, out of which developed the so-called servi- 

 tudes or rights of user, the praedium of the Romans, 

 a limited right to use the property of another. 



With the development of private property there 

 naturally also developed the right of preventing the 

 hunting on such lands, this being then their main use. 

 This exclusive right to the chase or hunt we find recog- 

 nized as a part of the property of the kings and barons 

 in the 8th century, when the kings forbade trespass 

 under penalty of severe fines; the king's ban (inter- 

 diction) of 60 shillings being imposed upon the tres- 

 passers. Indeed, by the end of the 8th century the 

 word Forst (voorst foresta) which until then had 

 been used merely to denote the king's property was 

 exclusively used to designate not necessarily wood- 

 land (the latter being referred to as silva or nemus), 

 but any territory in which the hunt had been reserved. 



This right to reserve the chase and the fishing, that 

 is, to establish banforests was in the 10th century ex- 

 tended by the kings to territory not belonging to them, 

 the right to the chase being according to the Roman 

 doctrine a regal right over any property. Under this 

 conception fields and pastures, woods and waters, 

 and whole villages with their inhabitants became 

 "inforested" grounds. The Norman kings, imbued 

 with a passion for the chase, exercised this right 

 widely, especially in England; the forests of Dean, 

 Epping and the New Forest being such inforested 



