WHITTLEBURY FOREST. 119 



sponsailles the king rode again to Stoney Stratford, as if 

 he had been hunting, and then returned at night. And 

 within a day or two the king sent to Lord Rivers, father 

 to his bride, saying that he would come and lodge with 

 him for a season, when he was received with all due honour, 

 and tarried there four days, when Elizabeth visited him 

 by night so secretly that none but her mother knew of it. 

 And so the marriage was kept secret till it needs be dis- 

 covered, because of princesses offered as wives to the king. 

 There was some obloquy attending this marriage ; how 

 that the king was enchanted by the Duchess of Bedford, or 

 he would have refused to acknowledge her daughter.' 



Of Whittlewood, or Whittlebury Forest the following 

 notice is given in the Journal of Forestry . 



" The Forest of Whittlewood is situated on the borders of 

 the counties of Northampton, Oxford, and Buckingham, 

 and comprehends within its ancient bounds a considerable 

 territory extending into these three counties. This forest, 

 as well as that of Salcey, is part of the honour of Grafton, 

 and there were various perambulations made of it in the 

 reigns of Henry III. and Edward I. Another was made 

 during the reign of Charles I., extending the bounds of it 

 far beyond the former limits, but the Act of 16th, Charles 

 I., restricted it again to the old limits of James I. Indeed, 

 these arbitrary extensions of forests beyond their old 

 limits, and their subsequent confinement to such area, may 

 be taken as indicative of the temper both of king and par- 

 liament, and which led to the civil war by an aggregate of 

 such encroachments on the liberty of the subject and a 

 substitution of the royal will. The coppices were cut in 

 rotation at twenty-one years growth ; and after being en- 

 closed for nine years from the time of each cutting of the 

 underwood, were then thrown open to the deer and cattle for 

 the remaining twelve years, excepting Shrobb Walk, which 

 was not subjected to any rights of common. The cattle 

 allowed to depasture in the forest were horned cattle and 

 horses only; no sheep or swine were admitted. The 



