A HISTORY OF HAMPSHIRE 



The agistors (agista fores), of whom there were four for each forest 

 in which there were woods, were officers appointed to superintend, 

 receive, and account for the agistments or payments made for the pannage 

 of swine and the grazing of cattle within the royal woods. The 

 Domesday record constantly refers to tribute of swine, woods being 

 entered as * silva de x porcis,' and the like ; but such tribute in kind was 

 subsequently commuted into a money payment. In early times such 

 pannage probably ranked second in value only to wood for building, fences 

 and fuel, and was of far more importance than rough pasture for cattle and 

 the honey from the wild bees, because the great herds of swine were 

 then one of the peculiar features of rural wealth in Hampshire. Even 

 down to recent times pannage of swine has remained an important branch 

 of rural economy in Hants. ' The hogs in the neighbourhood of the 

 forests feed principally upon acorns and beech-mast, which has given 

 them a superiority over most others in the kingdom ; they weigh from 

 1 6 to 40 score of pounds.' 1 The agistments in later times included herbage 

 from woods, open lands and pastures, as well as pannage ; and the agistors 

 had to take in and feed the cattle of those having right of common in 

 the king's forest, to collect the money due for pannage and grazing, to 

 present the accounts thereof to the justice in eyre at each justice seat, 

 and to prevent trespass by cattle. Appointments to the office of agistor 

 were made by letters patent under the great seal. 



Besides the above officers essential to a forest, there sometimes (as in 

 the case of, the New Forest) was a lord warden, chief warden, lieu- 

 tenant, or master forester, usually a nobleman of high degree, and 

 performing merely nominal ministerial but not judicial functions ; and 

 there might also be other minor officers, such as bow-bearers, riding 

 foresters, and so forth, according to local custom. 



Of forest courts there were three distinct kinds : (i) the ivoodmote 

 (as it was originally called) or court of attachment (as it was termed in 

 Henry III.'s Charta de Foresta), (2) the sivanimote or sivainmote, and (3) 

 the justice seat or court of the chief justice in eyre, the highest of the 

 three and the only court of record capable of entering and executing 

 judgments on offenders. 



' The first two of these Courts were composed of the Officers in each Forest. 

 The Court of Attachment or Woodmote ought to be held every Forty Days, at which 

 Court every Officer in the Forest should attend. This Court was to enquire into all 

 Offences of every Kind done in the Forest, and to present them at the Swainmote Court, 

 and to the Lord Chief Justice in Eyre. 



' The Court of Swainmote, in which the Verderers were the Judges, should be 

 held Three Times in every Year. The First Court should be held Fifteen Days before 

 Midsummer, for the Purpose of clearing the Forest of all Animals (except Deer) for 

 the next Month, called the Fence Month, which is the Fawning Season, during which 

 the Deer ought to be left undisturbed ; and a severe Penalty is incurred by introducing 

 any other Beast into the Forest at that Time. The next Swainmote Court should be 

 held Fifteen Days before Michaelmas, when the Herbage Money for Cattle should be 

 received, and the Swine should be admitted into the Forest, to feed on Acorns and 

 Beech Mast, called Pannage, which should be paid for at the Third Court, to be held 



1 Driver's Agriculture of the County of Hants (1794), p. 27. 

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