LEGISLATION SUBSEQUENT TO " CHARTA FOREST A." 229 



wall, within two miles of the sea, trees might be felled 

 when dead on the top. 



" No wood containing two or more acres, at the distance 

 of two furlongs from the house of the owner, was to be cut 

 down, under the pain of forfeiture of ten pounds for every 

 acre of woodland so destroyed. Woods felled under 

 fourteen years were afterward not to have colts or calves 

 put into them till eight years after cutting and enclosing. 

 Most of these acts of Henry, &c., were only temporary, till 

 the 13th of Elizabeth, chap. 25, when the time of protection 

 was enlarged, and the whole made permanent. By the 

 7th of Edward VI., chap. 7, the act of the 35th of Henry 

 VIII., chap. 3, was confirmed, and a little modified. 



" It was then enacted, that every sack of coals should 

 contain four bushels ; and every taleshide (bundle of cleft 

 wood) be four feet long beside the carfe ; and if named 

 one, to be marked one, and to be sixteen inches circum- 

 ference within a foot of the middle : if two, marked two, 

 and twenty-three inches girt : if three, marked as such, 

 and to be twenty-eight inches girt : if four, to girt thirty- 

 three inches : if five, to girt thirty-eight inches : and so 

 on, in proportion. Billet wood was to be three feet four 

 inches in length : the single one to be seventeen inches 

 and a-half in girt, and every billet of one cast, as they term 

 the mark, to be ten inches about ; and of two cast, to be 

 fourteen inches girt, and to be marked within six inches 

 of the middle, unless for the private use of the owner. 

 Every bound faggot should be three feet long, and the 

 band twenty-four inches in circumference, beside the knot. 

 This act was principally for London, but the 43d of 

 Elizabeth, chap. 14, rendered the statute more general; 

 and ordered that the faggots should be every stick three 

 feet in length, except one to harden and wedge the binding 

 of it. This was to prevent the abuse then much practised 

 of filling the middle with short sticks. 



" These acts were confirmed by the 9th of Ann, chap. 

 15 ; and the tenth of the same reign, chap. 6, directs that 

 the assize of billet shall not extend to beech? but that 



