24 MORFE FOREST. 



garders, in pursuance of tlie king's writ, is em- 

 powered to try t]ie case. The evidence adduced 

 shows that the foresters were to blame, the verdict 

 come to being that the men of Brug, although at 

 the wrestling match with bows and arrows, were in 

 no way chargeable with the assault upon the 

 forester. "They- had been indicted for trespass," 

 the jurors said, " not under any inquest taken on 

 the matter, but by one Corbett's suggestion to the 

 Justice of the Forest ; they had been attacked and 

 imprisoned under the warrant of the said Justice, 

 Corbett's grudge being that two men of Brug had 

 once promised him a cask of wine, a present in 

 which the corporate body refused to join." Corbett 

 was pronounced by the jurors '' a malevolent and a 

 procurer of evil." 



To correct evils like these the " ordinatio " of 

 Edward I. was introduced, containing many bene- 

 ficial regulations, and stating that proceedings had 

 been taken in the forest by one or two foresters 

 or verderers to extort money, also providing that 

 all trespassers in the forest of green hue and 

 of hunting shall be presented by the foresters 

 at the next Swainmote before foresters, verderers, 

 and other officers. In the same year the king 



