156 



THE FORESTS OF ENGLAND. 



twenty-five persons suffered under it ; and from 1623 to 

 1650 there were twelve executions. 



" The grant of this criminal jurisdiction is said to have 

 been given to that part of the part of the parish of Halifax 

 called the Forest of Hardwick, for the purpose of protect- 

 ing the goods which were obliged to be exposed on tenters 

 during the night Halifax having then been a great 

 manufacturing district for shalloons, &c. (See Watson's 

 History of Halifax?) 



"A singular legendary story is connected with the 

 Forest of Whitby, in Yorkshire. On Ascension-day (the 

 16th of October), 1140, William de Bruce, the lord of 

 Uglebarnby, Ralph de Percy, the lord of Snayton, and a 

 gentleman freeholder called Allotson, met to hunt the wild 

 boar in a wood called Eskdale-side, a portion of the forest 

 belonging to the abbot of the monastery of Whitby. 



" The hunters soon found a huge animal of the kind 

 they had been in search of, and the hounds ran him very 

 hard near the chapel and hermitage of Eskdale-side, where 

 there was a monk of Whitby, who was a hermit. The 

 boar being closely pursued, rushed in at the chapel-door, 

 and there lay down and expired immediately. The hermit, 

 hoping to save the holy place from desecration, closed the 

 door before the hounds could enter, and then returned to 

 his meditations and prayers, the hounds standing at bay 

 without. When the hunters arrived opposite to the chapel, 

 they called loudly and threateningly to the monk, who 

 opened the door. At the sight of the dead boar, they, in 

 a fury because the dogs had been put out of their game, 

 rushed upon the poor monk with their boar-spears, and 

 grievously wounded him. When their passion had cooled, 

 and they became aware of the extremity of the danger of 

 the hermit, they hastened and took sanctuary at Scar- 

 borough. 



" At that time, however, the abbot of Whitby monastery 

 was in great favour with the king, and had sufficient in- 

 terest with him to get them removed from sanctuary, 



