FORESTRY AND THE NEW FOREST 



practically 'red-handed '), or else indicted after the Form before speci- 

 fied.' His second Act, passed in the same year, was one of such enormous 

 importance to the people that the first section and so much of the second 

 as relates to the forests may well be quoted in extenso : 



Cap. i. First, That the Great Charter of the Liberties and the Charter of the 

 Forest be observed and kept in every Article ; (2) And that the Perambulations of the 

 Forest in time of King Edward, Grandfather to the King that now is, be from 

 henceforth holden in the like Form as it was then ridden and bounded ; (3) and 

 thereupon a Charter to be made to every Shire where it was ridden and bounded. (4) 

 And in such Places where it was not bounded, the King will that it shall be bounded 

 by good men and lawful, and that a Charter be thereupon made as afore is said. 

 Cap. ii. Every Man that hath any Wood within the Forest may take Houseboot 

 (i.e. timber for repairs to houses and tenements) and Heyboot (i.e. brushwood for 

 hedges and fencing) in his said Wood, without being attached for the same by any 

 Ministers of the Forest, so that he do the same by the view of the Foresters. 



Again and again such confirmation of Magna Gharta and the Gharta 

 Foresttz formed Caput i. of statutes passed by new parliaments between 

 1328 and 1377 ; but the legislation brought on the statute book in 1327 

 ensured immense relief from the oppression and vexatious interference 

 with the natural rights and privileges of those owning or holding land 

 within or in the vicinity of a royal forest. That extortion and illicit 

 practices seem to have then been rife, however, is made clear by the 

 provisions of sections 6 and 7 of the Statute of Purveyors passed in 1350, 

 which enacted that ' Cap. vi. A Purveyor (for the navy] shall not take 

 Timber in or about any Persons House,' and ' Cap. vii. Keepers of a Forest 

 or Chase shall gather nothing without the Owner's Good Will.' 



Extortion and administration of the forest laws in a vexatious 

 manner seem to have continued or to have been revived later on, 

 because in 1383 Richard II. enacted (cap. iii. and iv. of statute in 

 anno 7) that ' A Jury for a Trespass within the Forest shall give their 

 Verdict where they received their Charge,' and ' None shall be taken or 

 imprisoned by the Officers of the Forest without Indictment.' 



No forest legislation took place during the period of the House of 

 Lancaster, but when the country had recovered from the effects of the 

 Wars of the Roses An Act for inclosing of Woods in Forests, Chases, and 

 Purlieus was passed in 1482 (anno 22 Edw. IV., cap. vii.). Though 

 short, consisting of only one section, this statute was of great importance. 

 Hitherto owners of woodlands had only been allowed to enclose, for 

 natural regeneration and reproduction, their coppices and copses for 

 not longer than three years after each fall ' to save the young Spring of 

 their Wood so cut,' but now it was enacted by the king 



That if any of his Subjects, having Woods of his own growing in his own 

 Ground, within any Forest, Chase, or Purlew of the same, within this Realm of 

 England, from the First Day of this Parliament, shall cut, or cause to be cut the same 

 Wood, or Part thereof, by Licence of the King, or of his Heirs, in his Forests, Chases, 

 or Purlews, or without Licence in the Forest, Chase, or Purlew of any other Person, to 

 make any Sale of the same Wood ; it shall be lawful to the same Subjects, Owners of 

 the same Ground whereupon the Wood so cut did grow, and to such other Persons to 

 whom such Wood shall happen to be sold, immediately after the Wood so cut, to 

 cope and inclose the same Ground with sufficient Hedges, able to keep out all Manner 



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