THE "CHARTA FOREST A." 215 



record in the patent rolls, dated the 24th of July 1218. 

 From the whole of this it appears that the barons, clergy, 

 &c., had guarded very much against the power of the crown 

 in forest grants*.' " 



In the Magna Charta, made in the 9th of Henry III., 

 chap. XXI., it is declared : 



" No sheriff or bailiff of ours, or any other, shall take 

 the horses or carts of any man to make carriage, except he 

 pay the old price limited, that is to say, for carriage with 

 two horses, xd. a day ; for three horses, xivd. a day. (2) 

 No demesne cart of any spiritual person, or knight, or any 

 lord, shall be taken by our bailifTes ; (3) nor we, nor our 

 bailiffs, nor any other shall take any man's wood for our 

 catties, or any other necessaries to be done, but by the 

 licence of him whom the wood is." 



In a work entitled English Liberties ; or the Free-lorn 

 Subject's Inheritance, compiled by Henry Care, and con- 

 tinued with large additions by an anonymous writer of 

 the Middle Temple, which was published in 1719, there 

 is given, together with the Magna Charta, the Charta de 

 Foresta, with amendations illustrative of the design of the 

 several chapters, and of the necessity which existed for 

 the introduction of each. 



The following is a copy of the Charta Foresta : 

 Charta Foresta, Wth of Feb., $th Henry III., 1225. 



" I. First we will, that all forests, which King Henry, our 

 grandfather, afforested shall be viewed by good and lawful 

 men ; (2) and if he have made forest of any other wood 

 more than of his own demesne, whereby the owner of the 

 wood hath hurt, forthwith it shall be disforested, and if he 



* In another place, however, he informs us, that one of the original copies was 

 found in the archives of the cathedral of Durham, but considerably mutilated, having 

 been gnawed by the rats. 



