i62 THE RED DEER OF EXMOOR. 



hunted for three consecutive days on the forest, and 

 were not caught, and the record goes on : 



" And because the aforesaid wrongdoers were in 

 the same place for so long, and William de Plesset^ 

 forester of the fee, neither took them nor raised a 

 cry, nor his foresters, therefore it is to be judged 

 about him and his foresters." We do not know what 

 happened to them, but probably things were made 

 very unpleasant for them. 



The regarders of the forest were officers appointed 

 locally to make " regard " of or inspect the forest 

 every third year, to inquire into the actions of the 

 verderers and foresters, to see that everything had 

 been done as it should be done, and specially ta 

 report on timber trees, eyries of hawks, mines and 

 minerals, to the justices of Eyre. In Eyre is the 

 shortened form of an itinere or on circuit. An 

 important part of their duty also was to see to the 

 " lawing of dogs " — by dogs are meant mastiffs. 



" Buddaeus calleth a mastiff molossus, and in the 

 old British language that, and all other barking curs 

 about houses at night, were called masethefes, 

 because they maze or fright thieves from their 

 masters." Manwood in his treatise on forest laws 

 goes on to argue that the word " canis " or " dog" 

 refers only to mastiffs, and not to "greyhounds or little 

 dogs like spaniels." Manwood describes the method 

 of "lawing" them as follows: "The mastiff being 

 brought to set one of his forefeet upon a piece of 

 wood of Sin. thick and ift. square, then one with 



