FORESTAL LITERATURE. 251 



name of Henericus Senex, passing through Leicestershire 

 towards Scotland, saw iij. staggs in that place where the 

 Forest of Rutland is, now called Lyefield, and finding the 

 place fit to make a forest, he committed the keeping 

 thereof to one of his servants till his return, when he put 

 over the keeping thereof to one Husculfus; this rather 

 appeareth to be so, because that King Stephen coming 

 to be crowned after the death of the said King Henry, 

 and the people finding themselves aggrieved with the 

 multitude of forests, and the rigour of the forest laws, 

 they made him to grant redress in that and other things ; 

 whereupon he swore to perform three things, among 

 which this was one : quod nullius clereci seu laid silvas in 

 manu sua retinent sicut Henericus rex fecerat ; but mine 

 author saith nil eorum tenuit. For the laws of the forests 

 were such as pleased the king to inflict upon the offenders 

 for verte or venery, and not according to the laws of the 

 land ; non justum absolute, but justum secundum legem 

 Forestae. So that I conclude that forests were here in 

 England before the Conquest, but that they never were 

 in so great estimation, nor governed with so precise laws 

 as they were in the times of the Conqueror and his sons, 

 who were given (as the Normans for the most part were) 

 to take great delight in hunting." 



On 3d November 1591, there was read at a meeting of 

 the Academy, the following note in regard to the New 

 Forest, but by whom it was lodged is not stated : 



" William the Conqueror pulled down villages and 

 churches, for the space of 30 miles, to make thereof a 

 forest betwixt Salisbury and the sea southward, which 

 unto this day is called the New Forest; also, he seized 

 the most part of the forests of England with his own 

 hands, and made a law against those that should kill any 

 of the deer, which was to have their eyes put out : in 

 which New Forest William Rufus was slain." 



There may be nothing learned from such notices which 

 may not have been learned from other sources of informa- 



