i 4 THE ROYAL FORESTS OF ENGLAND 



forty-two days in each of the several bailiwicks or wards into 

 which a forest was divided, but on different days of the week. 

 Thus, at Sherwood Forest these courts were held at Linby, 

 Calverton, Mansfield, and Edwinstowe on Monday, Wednesday, 

 Thursday, and Friday respectively in every sixth week ; though 

 not infrequently they had to adjourn for lack of any business 

 to transact. 



The true swainmote, according to Henry III.'s Charter, was 

 only to be held three times a year, namely, fifteen days before 

 Midsummer, when the agisters met to see to the observance 

 of the fence month ; fifteen days before Michaelmas, when the 

 agistment of the woods began ; and at Martinmas, when the 

 agisters met to receive the pannage. But, as has been re- 

 marked, the name swainmote (the court of the free-forest tenant 

 of Saxon origin) became in later times a usual alias for the 

 attachment court. 



The Attachment, or Forty-day Court, as it was sometimes 

 termed, was so called because its object was to receive the 

 attachment of the foresters or woodwards, and to enter them on 

 the verderers' rolls. The legal term "attachment" (differing 

 from "arrest," which only applied to the body) had a threefold 

 operation in the forest as at common law ; a man might be 

 attached by (i) his goods and chattels, or (2) by pledges and 

 mainprize, or (3) by his body. The usual proceeding was that 

 if the foresters found a man trespassing on the vert they might 

 attach him by his body, and cause him to find two pledges (or 

 bail) to appear at the next attachment court. On his appear- 

 ance at that court he was mainprized (that is, set at liberty 

 under bail) until the next eyre of the justices. If offending for 

 a second time, four pledges were held necessary ; if a third 

 time, eight pledges ; and for a fourth time, imprisonment until 

 the eyre. 



If, however, a man was taken killing the deer or carrying 

 them away which was called being taken with the manner, or 

 mainour, an overt sign such as blood on the hands or clothes 

 he could be attached at once by his body, and imprisoned 

 until delivered on bail by the king, or the justice of the 

 particular forest, to appear at the next eyre. 



Those who lived in the forest, and were taken in the king's 

 demesnes cutting green wood or saplings, or even gathering 



