A HISTORY OF HAMPSHIRE 



and to view, receive and enrol the attachments and presentments of all 

 manner of trespasses against vert and venison to be brought before the 

 justice in eyre. They were judges in the swainmote court, and 

 directed the other local forest-officers. They were expected to have a 

 good knowledge of forest law, but were usually assisted by a steward 

 (senescallus) with regard to technical matters such as mainprise or bail- 

 ment and the like. The verderers corresponded to the four thaegend, or 

 greater thegns of the Saxon and Danish times, while the regarders 

 corresponded to the lestbegend, or lesser thegns. 



The regarders (regardatorfs), of whom there were twelve for each 

 forest, were officers appointed (under the great Forest Charter) to 

 supervise all the local forest-officers. They had to go through the 

 whole forest once every third year, when a * regard ' or visitatio 

 nemorum was ordered by the issue of the king's writ to the sheriff. 

 During such triennial regards the regarders, accompanied by the 

 foresters and woodwards, were to view all assarts, wastes, and purprestures, 

 and to enquire into all offences in the forest. If any of them died 

 or fell sick, his place had to be rilled up before any regard could be 

 made ; and all twelve had, like a jury at common law, to be unani- 

 mous before they could legally certify a presentment and enrol it for 

 trial. They had also to examine the woods and the falls of timber, the 

 hedges and fences, the forges and mines ; to make inquiries about those 

 who had bows, arrows and dogs ; and they had to see that the brutal law 

 regarding the laming of dogs or ' expeditation ' of three claws of a forefoot 

 (introduced by Henry II.) was duly carried out on all mastiffs owned by 

 landowners, freeholders, farmers, etc., dwelling within the forest. 1 'Every 

 one that keeps any great dog, not expeditated, forfeits three shillings and 

 fourpence to the king' (Cowell). Only the dogs of abbots and their 

 monks were exempt from this rule, and Henry VII. granted special 

 exemption in this matter to the abbot and monks of Beaulieu.* The 



1 The so-called ' Stirrup of Rufus,' so well known to all visitors to the Verderers' Hall at the 

 King's House, Lyndhurst, has for ages hung there as the ancient gauge of the dogs allowed to be kept 

 in the forest without expeditation, the ' lawing ' being carried out on all ' great dogs ' that could not 

 pass through the stirrup. From the appearance of the latter, however, it seems highly improbable that 

 its antiquity can be so great as tradition accredits to it. 



* Lewis, Historical Inquiries concerning Forests and Forest Laws (181 1), p. 37. As a matter of fact, 

 however, during the fourteenth century the expeditation of dogs seems to have been at any rate some- 

 times, and perhaps even customarily, compounded for by a money payment in place of being strictly 

 enforced. Thus in the ' Pleas of the Forest in Co. Southampton, at Southampton on Monday next 

 after the translation of St. Thomas the Martyr, 4th Edw. III. (1330), before John Mantravers, Robert de 

 Asspale, William de Ponte Robert!, and Hugh de Hanslap, justices in eyre,' the following entries occur : 

 ' From John son of Richard de Winton Knight and Joan his wife ; from Edmond de 

 Kendale and Henry de Harnhulle, tenants of the land and tenements which were of John 

 son of Thomas, at one time keeper of the forest, for two expeditations of dogs received by the 

 said John son of Thomas in his time, 90. From the heirs and tenants of the lands and tene- 

 ments of Roger de Inkpenne, at one time keeper of the forest aforesaid, for one expeditation of 

 dogs received by him in his time, 50.' 



Presumably the keepers died without accounting for the above sums received by them, and their heirs 

 were held responsible. But these are large sums for that date, and the value of such expeditation fees 

 over the whole forest must have been considerable. 



Again, at the Pleas of the Forest at Winchester on the morrow of St. Hilary 8th Edward I., be- 

 fore Roger de Clifford, John Lovetot, Geoffrey de Pyscheford, William de Hamelton, Justices assigned to 

 hear and determine the pleas . . . The foresters, verderers, regarders and other powers of the New 



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