22 MORFE FOEEST. 



from the remains of the one mentioned in the 

 legend. 



Xot only legends, but traditions, and some historical 

 incidents, as those brought to light by the Forest 

 EoUs, afford now and then an insight of the sporting 

 kind of life led within the boundary and jurisdiction 

 of the forest and upon its outskirts. The bow being 

 not only the chief weapon of sport but of war, those 

 with a greater revenue from land than one hundred 

 pence were at one time not only permitted but com- 

 pelled to have in their possession bows and arrows, 

 but, to prevent those living within the precincts of 

 the forest killing the king's deer, the arrows were to 

 be rounded. These were sometimes sharpened, and 

 . disputes arose between their owners, the dwellers in 

 the villages, and the overseers of the forest, the more 

 fruitful source of grievance being with the com- 

 moners, who, claiming pasturage for their cows and 

 their horses, often became poachers. On one occa- 

 sion a kid being wounded by an arrow at Atterley, 

 on the "Willey side of the Severn, and the culprit not 

 being forthcoming, a whole district is in misericordid, 

 under the ban of the fierce Forest Laws of the period. 

 On another occasion a stag enters the postern gate 

 of the Castle of Bridgnorth, and the vision of venison 



