78 THE FORESTS OF ENGLAND. 



" Dr. Thomas, I presume on documentary evidence, pro- 

 ceeds to give his account of the transaction as follows : 

 'On the eve of the Lady-Day, 1289-90, there was a court held 

 by the king at Feckenham, and inquiries made throughout 

 the whole county who had transgressed in hunting in that 

 forest, and many were imprisoned, and others that were 

 indicted for the same found six sureties for their appear- 

 ance before the king at Wodestoke on the nones of April, 

 to hear his sentence of mercy or judgment, and because 

 there was no other equity but the king's will, the bishop's 

 (of Worcester) redemption was taxed at 500 marks, and 

 the prior's at 200. About this time he (Godfrey Giffard) 

 had a controversy with Gilbert de Clare, Earl of Gloucester, 

 and Jean his wife/ &c. 



'' Malvern Chase had its peculiar laws and customs, even 

 after it became the property of a subject, and ' the foresters ' 

 had very considerable power within its limits, extending 

 even to judicial functions. It is stated in documents given 

 in the appendix to the Forests, in Nash's Worcestershire, 

 that the foresters only had authority to arrest every felon 

 for felony and murder ' found within the said Chase,' and 

 they were to bring him before the chief forester, who held 

 of the chief lord in fee by a certain rent of an axe and a 

 horn ; and he had power to sit in judgment on the said 

 felonies and murders, as also to execute the office of 

 coroner, and if the persons tried were found guilty by a 

 verdict of twelve men thereupon charged and sworn, of 

 the four next townships adjoining unto the place where 

 the said felony and murder was done, his head was to be 

 struck off with the forester's axe at a place called Sweet 

 Oaks within the said Chase, where they always sat in 

 judgment on such persons, and the body was to be carried 

 unto the height of Malvern Hill unto a place called Bal- 

 deyate. and there to be hanged on a gallows, and so to 

 remain, unless licence was granted by the chief forester to 

 take it down. It does not appear that the ' chief forester' 

 was bound to be learned in the law, and perhaps a poor 

 fellow obnoxious to the chief or any other forester, if 



