2 THE ROYAL FORESTS OF ENGLAND 



be given in a few words, of what used to be understood by 

 the English term "forest" in Norman, Plantagenet, and early 

 Tudor days. A forest was a portion of territory consisting of 

 extensive waste lands, and including a certain amount of both 

 woodland and pasture, circumscribed by defined metes and 

 bounds, within which the right of hunting was reserved ex- 

 clusively to the king, and which was subject to a special code 

 of laws administered by local as well as central ministers. 



Had the true meaning of the old term "forest" been grasped, 

 much waste of learning, and of vain strivings to prove that 

 such barren tracts as by far the greater part of the forests of 

 Dartmoor, of Exmoor, and of the High Peak, or even of the 

 larger portion of the New Forest were wood-covered in historic 

 times, might have been spared. 



A chase was, like a forest, unenclosed and only defined by 

 metes and bounds, but could be held by a subject. Offences 

 committed therein were, as a rule, punishable by the Common 

 Law and not by forest jurisdiction, though swainmotes were 

 sometimes held therein, proving that they had originally been 

 royal forests. The terms "chase" and "forest" were occasion- 

 ally used interchangeably, owing to a chase having been secured 

 by the Crown, or the Crown having granted a royal forest to 

 a subject. 



A park was an enclosure, fenced off by pales or a wall. In 

 certain forests there were various parks, as in Dufifield Frith, 

 and Needwood, and Sherwood ; and in most, at least one 

 or two ; but many parks were held throughout the country 

 by subjects under Crown licence, altogether apart from forests. 

 Forest law prevailed in parks within a forest, but not in those 

 outside such limits. An Elizabethan estimate, of doubtful 

 value, states that the old royal forests were sixty-nine in 

 number, and that there were in addition thirteen chases and 

 more than seven hundred parks. 



The term "warren" also requires brief discussion. The public 

 had a right to hunt wild animals in any unenclosed land 

 outside forest limits, unless such right had been restricted by 

 some special royal grant. The word "warren" the subject is 

 ably treated by Mr. Turner (Forest Pleas, cxxiii.-cxxxiv.) was 

 used to denote either the exclusive right of hunting and taking 

 certain beasts (ferce natures} in a particular place, or the land 



