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ANCIENT FOREST LAWS. 



The evolution of law in its relation to forests, game, etc., from the earliest 

 days to the present time, presents an interesting field of study, but one which 

 cannot be elucidated here. The following notes have been compiled from Man- 

 wood's woric and other sources, and may serve to throw some light on the reasons 

 which at various times have moved men to restrain the cutting of timber, as well 

 as on the means which they have from time to time adopted with the view of 

 providing a sufficient store of what in all ages has been regarded as a prime 

 necessity, and which was never more so than now : 



By a law of King Ina it was enacted, that if anyone set fire to a wood, he 

 should be punished, besides paying a fine of three pounds (an immense sum in 

 those days) ; and for those who clandestinely cut, of which the very sound of the 

 axe was to be sufficient conviction, for every tree they were to be mulcted thirty 

 shillings. For a tree so felled, under the shadow of which thirty hogs could stand 

 the offender was to be mulcted three pounds. 



It was a law at Frankfort that every young farmer must produce a certificate 

 of his having planted a certain number of trees (probably in proportion to his 

 circumstances in life) before he was allowed to marry. In the Duke of Luxem- 

 burg's dominions, no farmer was permitted to fell a tree, unless he could make 

 it appear, that he had planted another. Louis the XIV. of France would permit 

 no oak trees to be cut, to whomsoever they might belong, till his surveying officer 

 had marked them out ; nor could they be felled beyond such a circuit .as was 

 sufficiently fenced in by him who bought them ; and then no cattle were allowed 

 to be put in till the seedlings which sprung out of the ground, were perfectly out 

 -of danger. 



In Saxon times, all beasts and birds that were wild by nature, were wholly 

 the property of the king on whosever land or grounds they were found, whether 

 any part of the realm, as well those that were out of the forests, chases, and 

 warrens, as those that remained within any of them ; so that it was not lawful 

 for any man to kill, take, or hunt within his own ground ; and if anyone did so, 

 he was liable to be punished for the same. This law continued till Canute the 

 Dane came to the English crown, who it appears appointed certain forests and 

 chases and fixed their limits the first year of his reign. For the preservation of 

 his own forests he made particular laws at Winchester, from which the following 

 extracts are translated : 



(1) " Let there be then four men of the higher class who shall have the 

 right, according to the custom which the English call pegened, followed in each 

 Province of my kingdom, of distributing justice and of inflicting punishment, and 

 of all matters concerning the forest, before all my people, whether English or 

 Danes, throughout all the kingdoms of England ; which four we order to be called 

 primarii forestce, chiefs (or earls) of the forest. 



(2) Let there be under each of these, four of the middling class of men; 

 (which the English call lespegend, but the Danes yoong men, and which would 

 now be called yoemen, or perhaps, esquires) who shall undertake the care and 

 custody as well of vert as of venison. 



(3) In administering justice, these (yoong men) shall not interfere in the 

 least ; and such middling persons, after having had the care of the wild animals, 

 shall be held always as gentlemen, which the Danes call ealdermen. 



