44 



THE FORESTS OF ENGLAND. 



de Dene ;' Henry II. subsequently confirmed the institution, 

 and granted to the monks the right of grazing their cattle 

 and feeding their hogs in the woods, with permission to 

 use the timber for repairing their buildings, and to set up 

 and maintain an iron forge. A little later on the same 

 Sovereign gave permission to the Abbot of Flaxley to have 

 both an itinerant and a stationary forge, with wood for 

 fuel ; the two consumed more than two of the largest oaks 

 weekly, and to stop this devastation the king gave to the 

 Abbey 872 acres of woodland, known to the present day as 

 ' Abbot's Woods/ Quite recently Mr E. Crawshay pur- 

 chased from the present holders of Flaxley Abbey ' the 

 vert,' and from the Government 'the Venison' (hunting 

 rights), of this estate, which has thus ceased to be the pro- 

 perty of the Crown. 



" The Itinerary of King John shows that he visited St. 

 Briavels on November 15th, 1207, and this, and other 

 places within the forest bounds, on no less than sixteen 

 occasions in the following years, his last visit being to 

 Flaxley on December llth, 1214. From this date we get 

 in Bigland's County History a list of the ' Constables and 

 Wardens' in almost unbroken succession : 



1436 14 Henry VI. 

 1459 38 



John de Monmouth 

 Robert Waleran 

 John Giffard (Baron) 

 Thomas de Clace 



William de Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick 

 John de Bottourt (deprived) 

 Thomas de Everty 

 John de Handeloe 

 Ralph de Abbenhalle 

 John de Bottourt (restored) 

 William de Stanre 

 Hugh le Despenser (senior) 

 John de Nyvers 

 John de Hardeshull 

 Roger Clifford (Baron) 

 Thomas de Woodstock, Duke of 



Gloucester 



John, Duke of Bedford 

 John Tiptoft, Earl of Worcester 



