THE FOREST OF EXMOOR. 135 



was now declared free from forest law, and this was 

 the only alteration made by the perambulation. But 

 it must be remembered that John Herun married 

 Emma Plecy, sister of Sabina Pecche, the 

 forester ; , that Avelina, another sister, was married 

 to Thomas Durrante, though what relation he may 

 have been of Richard we do not know, and that 

 Geoffrey de Scolonde, whose heirs were interested 

 also in the plunder, had been the husband of Emma 

 de Wrotham, sister of Richard de Wrotham, the late 

 forester, and therefore great-aunt to Sabina. It 

 looks as if Sabina had brought off a nice little family 

 job. Had there been a Commissioner of Woods and 

 Forests sitting in the Commons in those days the 

 Member for Somerset might have given him an 

 uncomfortable ten minutes at question-time. 



Picked Stones is a lonely farm, commonly believed 

 to derive its name from the masses of white quartz 

 rock sticking up through the heather close by. It is 

 doubtful if this is the real derivation. It is one of 

 the oldest and probably the only Inhabited house, 

 except perhaps at Simonsbath and the village of 

 Oare, on the ancient forest as defined in i 298, and 

 was then called Picotestune. 



We find Richard de Picotestune mentioned as a 

 surety valued \2d. in the forest rolls in 1270, and it 

 is not a little remarkable that Christina, youngest 

 daughter of Richard de Wrotham, who was forester 

 in 1200, married Thomas Picot. It may well have 

 been that the erection of a house by Thomas Picot 



