xiv PREFACE 



book owed its origin to the spirited action of the Corporation 

 of the City of London, in rescuing much of the illegally en- 

 closed land of Epping Forest ; it is based throughout on 

 documentary evidence, and illustrates, in many ways, forest 

 law and procedure in other counties besides Essex. 



The documents relative to the Yorkshire Forest of Pickering 

 are exceptionally voluminous and interesting. They sufficed 

 to fill four volumes of the new series of the North Riding 

 Record Society, and were put forth by Mr. R. B. Turton 

 between 1894-7. I na cl obtained transcripts of many of these 

 documents in 1890, and made considerable extracts from others 

 in 1902-3 before I was acquainted with these books. They are 

 not well arranged, but both transcripts and introductions are 

 of the greatest value to the forest student, particularly of the 

 fourteenth century. 



In 1901 the Selden Society issued Mr. G. J. Turner's Select 

 Pleas of the Forest, the one masterly work on English forest 

 law and procedure, more especially of the thirteenth century. 

 To this admirable volume these pages are much indebted, and 

 from it not infrequent quotations have by leave been taken. 

 I desire also here to gratefully acknowledge the help I have 

 received from Mr. Turner, outside his published work, and 

 particularly for his reading the proof of the earlier chapters, 

 though it is not to be understood that he is responsible for any 

 statements. It is much to be hoped that Mr. Turner will ere 

 long produce another book on the later Forest Pleas in the 

 time of their decadence. 



Passing long periods of my earlier life within the bounds of 

 two old royal forests, Exmoor, Somerset, and Duffield Frith, 

 Derbyshire, and living subsequently close to the confines of 

 the Staffordshire forests of Kinver, Cannock, and Needwood, 

 the subject treated of in these pages has always had for me a 

 particular fascination. Accidentally meeting in early life with 

 a copy of that very rare little work, Dryden's edition of L! Art 

 de Venerie (1843), by William Twici, huntsman to Edward II., 

 which is described in chapter vi., made me desire to know 



