A HISTORY OF HAMPSHIRE 



the more serious charges sent up to it by the swainmote. The proceed- 

 ings of the justice seat or any miscarriage of justice could only be removed 

 by writ of error into the court of king's bench at Westminster, to which 

 also the chief justice could refer any point of law if he thought necessary. 



There were many quaint proceedings at the justice seat, including 

 not only the oath of allegiance to the king taken by all inhabitants of the 

 forest on attaining the age of twelve years, but also various ancient customs 

 connected with the holding of offices, which have now all died out. 



The iter, or circuit of the justices in eyre or of their deputies, was 

 continued down to 1635, when Lord Holland held a justice seat in Alice 

 Holt and Wolmer Forests, the records of which are preserved in the 

 Public Record Office. But the Act of 1640 virtually put an end to 

 these circuits. Charles II. tried to revive the practice, though only one 

 circuit was made, that of Vere, Earl of Oxford, held at Lyndhurst in 

 1669 and 1670. The ancient royal coat of arms which was provided 

 for this occasion still hangs, having been carefully restored, in the Ver- 

 derers' Hall at Lyndhurst. 1 Seven years after this date a Commission 

 was issued by Charles II. to enquire into the condition of the New 

 Forest and of the various abuses therein. An enquiry was held at 

 Lyndhurst in August, 1677, and much evidence of the usual sort was 

 given as to damage to coppices by cutting of trees either illegally or in 

 contravention of the existing leases, by turning cattle into them and 

 similar offences. It was not until 1817, however, that they were legally 

 abolished by An Act to abolish the Offices of the Warden^ Chief Justices 

 and "Justices in Eyre, North and South of Trent (57 Geo. III. cap. Ixi.), 

 when these duties were vested in the first Commissioner of Woods and 

 Forests. 



Forest offences were, of course, at one time almost innumerable. 

 Those concerning venison or beasts of chase, and game generally, have been 

 frequently referred to above in sketching the evolution of the forest laws. 

 The chief offences relating to the vert or woodlands consisted in purpres- 

 ture or trespass and enclosure, waste or clearance of covert, and assart or 

 grubbing up roots to make arable or pasture 'lands. Purpresture (from 

 pourpris, 'an enclosure') consisted in illegal encroachment on forest land 

 'by the negligence of the Sheriff or Deputy, or by the long Continuance 

 of Wars, inasmuch as those who have lands near the Crown lands, take 

 or enclose part of them, and lay it to their own ' (Cowell). 'Waste of 

 the Forest is most properly where a man cuts down his own Woods 

 within the Forest, without Licence of the King, or Lord Chief Justice 

 in Eyre' (ibid.). It was waste for a freeholder to cut trees in his own 

 woods or to plough one of his own meadows in the forest without either 

 previously obtaining license from the justice in eyre or doing the act in 

 presence of the royal forester, and land wasted could be seized for the 

 king's use till released upon payment of the fine imposed at a justice seat. 



The records of the transactions at this Justice Seat were republished by the Commissioners of 

 Woods in 1853 as a Blue Book, and are well worth the attention of all who are interested in these 

 ancient records. 



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