172 THE RED DEER OE EXMOOR. 



3 



the Lord King Henry, son of King John, were 

 afforested by King John. And afterwards they were 

 disafforested by King Henry, son of King John, when 

 a fifteenth part of the moveable goods of all England 

 was given to the said Lord King Henry for making the 

 charter of common liberties and forest charter. And 

 afterwards they were afforested by Richard de 

 Wyrtham against the forest' charter, to the great 

 damage of the whole country where the Lord King 

 has no profit." 



Richard de Wyrtham, by virtue of his office as 

 forester in fee, had been lord of the manors of 

 Withypool and Hawkridge, and had been, no doubt, 

 anxious to keep the strongest hold possible over the 

 game on his own lands. 



He had been succeeded by Richard de Plecy in 

 the office of forester when the perambulation 

 mentioned took place, and he seems to have upheld 

 the acts of his great-uncle Richard ; but the award 

 must have been speedily shown to be wrong, for in 

 April of the same year a second jury were called 

 together, and they made another perambulation : 

 " The sworn men of Exmoor went forward in this 

 way." They began at Willingford on the Danes- 

 brook, the Devon boundary, and went straight to 

 Hocklestone on the edge of Withypool Common, 

 and down to Sherdan Hutch on the Bade. "And 

 so going down by the river bank of the manor of 

 Landacre, leaving that within the forest straight to 

 Stonhuste " (probably an upright stone just by the 



