CHAPTER XVI. 



TROUBLOUS TIMES. 



The heavy hart, the blowing buck, 



The rascal and the pricket. 

 Are now among the yeoman's pease, 



And leave the fearful thicket. 



Beaumont and Fletcher. 



James I., who was a devoted sportsman, attempted 

 to revive the old forest jurisdiction all over England, 

 though apparently with but small success. He 

 must, however, have held some forest courts on 

 Exmoor, though the records of them are lost, 

 because an Act was passed in 1641 summarily 

 disafforesting all those forests in which courts had 

 not been held within the last sixty years. Under 

 this Act a very great number of forest rights 

 disappeared for ever in various parts of the country, 

 but' Exmoor Forest survived. 



James I., following the example of Henry VIIL, 

 settled Exmoor on his Oueen, Anne of Denmark, 

 after .whose death in 1619 it reverted to the King. 

 She seems to have leased her rights to the 

 Earl of Pembroke, who appears to have sublet 

 to various deputies, locally termed "foresters." 



T 



