EOYAL CHASE OF SHIRLOT. 35 



Hundreds, is said to have under him " two foresters, 

 wlio give him 20s. per annum for holding their 

 office, and to make -a levy on oats in Lent, and on 

 wheat in autumn." "The aforesaid Philip,'' it is 

 said, ^' hath now in the said Haye of Windfalls as 

 much as seven trees, and likewise all trees which are 

 wind-fallen, the jurors know not by what warrant 

 except by ancient tenure." These privileged officers 

 had good pickings, evidently by means of their 

 various time- sanctioned customs, and jolly Kves no 

 doubt they led. 



In the forty-second of Henry III. Hammond le 

 Strange was steward of this forest, and in the second 

 of Edward I. the king's forester is said to have given 

 the sheriff of the county notice that he was to convey 

 all the venison killed in the forests of Salop, and 

 deliver it at Westminster to the king's larder, for 

 the use of the king's palace. According to the same 

 record, the profits that were made of the oaks that 

 were fallen were to be applied to the building of a 

 vessel for the king. In the nineteenth of Eichard II., 

 Eichard Chelmswick was appointed forester for Hfe ; 

 and in the twenty-sixth of Henry III. the steward- 

 ship both of the forests of Morfe and of Shirlot was 

 granted to John Hampton and his heirs. 



