( *iv ) 



for the "free pasturage of cattle," but this could not in any case be the 

 sense of the passage, since " bestia " is the technical expression for " beasts 

 of 'the forest,"* and the act imputed to the king seems to be one of 

 tyranny and not of munificence. It is not unreasonable to suppose, how- 

 ever, that the expedient was resorted to by the Crown to save the deer 

 from starvation, owing to the failure of herbage ; and it is interesting 

 to find, though the fact is unnoticed in the only surviving Chancery Roll 

 for the period, a writ despatched at this time from the king to the 

 Bishop "pro defensa boscorum.""^ Perhaps, too, the drought may account 

 for the considerable value of manorial herbage in this year, and payments 

 for the home farms, as well as for the numerous fines "pro pastura " in 

 the issues of the courts. 



Such local notices as those which refer to the lepers of Farnham ' and 

 the fire at the Bishop's palace of Harwell * have some interest, and in 

 this connection attention may be called to the survey of the arms of 

 the hundred of Sutton,' to the lighting of a beacon upon Quantock in 

 Somersetshire,^ and the issue of the " new charter of liberties " in favour 

 of the church of Winchester.' 



As a source of historical reference, this Roll possesses a peculiar 

 value as a means of supplementing, however slightly, the meagre notices 

 which have survived of the movements of the Court between May and 

 October of the year 1209. It is well known that, for some unexplained 

 cause, the great series of Chancery Eolls are wanting for this and the 

 two following years,* and this void in the existing materials for a royal 

 progress and its incidents has been partially supplied by the survival of 

 a Wardrobe Account® for the 11th year of the reign, and kindred records " 

 for the succeeding period. Now an examination of the first of these 

 supplementary enrolments will show that it is chiefly concerned with the 

 movements of the king and the affairs of State, which seem to have been 

 largely transacted by the Bishop of Winchester who was in attendance 

 during the greater part of the period between the Ascension and Michaelmas. 

 Thus the information which our Roll supplies lespecting the engagements 

 of the Bishop, throws considerable light upon those of his royal master, 

 in addition to supplementing the published itinerary of the Court in several 

 particulars, though, unfortunately, the nature of the account does not 

 enable us to fix the dates of certain of these notices. An itinerary 

 showing the Bishop's movements and relations with the Court during the 

 period of this account, is appended to the Preface. 



The names of notable persons which occur in the Roll will be found 

 in the Index." 



1 Pleas of the Forest (Selden Soc), p. x. 



« p. 68. 



» p. 38, 1. 62. 



* p. 53. 



* p. 42, 1. 27. At Bimpton it seems to have been the custom to give a feast to the suitors of the 

 hundred Court (pp. 72, 73). 



* p. 68, 1. 43. A beacon is also charged for at Witney (p. 18, 1. 1.) 

 f p. 17, 1. 43. 



' The Close Rolls break oS in May, 1208, and the Patent and Charter Bolls in May, 1209. 



* Rotulus Misae (Becord Commission). 

 "> Rotuli de Liberate et Prsastitis. 



^' Further notices of most of these will be found in the Rotulus Miss for this date, and in the 

 Chancery Bolls of the preceding years. 



