PREFACE 



COUNTY historians have, as a rule, with but rare ex- 

 ceptions, either entirely ignored the story of the royal 

 forests within their confines, or have treated the subject 

 after the most meagre fashion. Nevertheless, there is abundant 

 and most interesting material for their history at the Public 

 Record Office in a mass of documents which are but very 

 rarely consulted. Occasionally, too, much can be gleaned from 

 manuscripts at the British Museum, Cambridge University 

 Library, Guildhall, or Lincoln's Inn, and in a few cases from 

 rolls or books of forest proceedings in private hands. 



If references had been given to every document cited, almost 

 every page would have bristled with footnotes, involving a 

 considerable curtailment of the rest of the letterpress. Not 

 a single statement, however, is made where no author is cited 

 save on the authority of original and contemporary records. 



It may be helpful to some to state the chief classes of 

 documents whence forest lore is to be obtained in the vast 

 national depository in Chancery Lane. 



(1) Placitag Foresta, or Forest Proceedings, Chancery 

 John to Charles I. consisting of presentments, claims, per- 

 ambulations, etc., before the Justices in Eyre of the Forests. 

 They are contained in 156 bundles, and an inventory of their 

 contents will be found in the Dep.-Master of Rolls Reports, v., 

 App. ii., 46-56. 



(2) Swainmote Court Rolls of Windsor, 2 Edw. VI. to 

 14 Charles I. Inventory in Report, v., App. ii., 57-9. 



