FORESTRY AND THE NEW FOREST 



reputed to have preserved their jura regalia, that is, the jurisdiction, laws, 

 courts, officers, game, and boundaries ' ; while Buckholt, Chute, and Park- 

 hurst, though still under the survey of the exchequer, are included 

 among the ' nominal forests and chases, some of which have been in- 

 closed, and are demised as part of the land revenue, and in others the 

 rights of the Crown have been totally granted away.' 1 



In 1788 the New Forest was found to have been previously divided 

 into nine bailiwicks, and subdivided into fifteen walks ; and for its 

 administration there were a lord warden, lieutenant, riding forester, 

 bow-bearer, two rangers (of the purlieus), a woodward and under 

 woodward, four verderers, a high steward and under steward, twelve 

 regarders, nine foresters or master keepers, and fifteen under foresters 

 or groom keepers. 



The forest itself consisted of vert and venison, the former including 

 all trees, coppices, and turf, and the latter all beasts of the forest (hart, 

 hind, hare, wild boar, and wolf), of the chase (buck, doe, fox, marten, 

 and roe), of the park (as for the chase) and of the warren (hare, rabbit, 

 pheasant, and partridge). 



The forest-officers charged with the care of vert and venison, and 

 with the administration of the forest laws, consisted in each forest of a 

 justice in eyre, verderers, regarders, foresters, agistors, woodwards, and a 

 steward ; but besides these there were usually a lord warden, lieutenant, or 

 master forester, appointed by the king in each forest, and there might 

 also be other officers by local custom. 



The justice in eyre, the chief forest-officer, was an office of great 

 dignity, generally held only by a peer being a privy councillor. 

 Originally there were three of these, but ever since Henry III.'s Forest 

 Charter there were usually two justices in eyre or justiciarii itiner antes, 

 distinguished from the justices of oyer and terminer because of their 

 touring through their respective provinces north and south of the Trent, 

 since they had no power to delegate their duties to a deputy until 1540 

 (32 Hen. VIII. c. 35). Each of these two justices in eyre had jurisdic- 

 tion over all the forests within his district, and no other officer had any 

 general superintendence of the forests before the reign of Henry VIII. 



The other forest-officers merely held local appointments. The 

 verderers (viria'arii) , of whom four were usually appointed to each 

 forest, were judicial officers chosen by the king's writ from among the 

 local gentlemen, and sworn to maintain and keep the assizes of the forest, 



1 The Third Report (dated 3rd June, 1788) of the Commissioners appointed to inquire into the 

 State and Condition of the Woods, Forests, and Land Revenues of the Crown gives, in Appendix 



No. i : 



An account of the several Woods, Forests, Parks, and Chases, under the Survey of John Pitt, 

 Esq., as Surveyor General of His Majesty's Woods and Forests ; viz. New Forest, Alice Holt and 

 Woolmer Forest, Bere Forest (Hampshire) ; Windsor Forest and Cranbourne Chase, Windsor Great 

 Park, Windsor Little Park (Berkshire) ; Richmond Park (Surrey) ; St. James's Park, Hyde Park, Bushy 

 Park, Hampton Court Park (Middlesex) ; Dean Forest (Gloucestershire) ; Greenwich Park (Kent) ; 

 Waltham als Epping Forest (Essex) ; Whittlewood Forest, Salcey Forest, Rockingham Forest (North- 

 amptonshire) ; Whichwood Forest (Oxfordshire). All the above-mentioned Forests and Parks are on 

 the South Side of the Trent. Sherwood Forest (Nottinghamshire), on the North Side of the Trent. 



435 



