The forest pleas or eyres were usually held in the county 

 town, but occasionally those summoned had to appear in 

 another county. This was the case with the delinquents and 

 officials of Duffield Frith ; that forest was in the honor of 

 Tutbury, and the pleas were held at that Staffordshire town. 

 Now and again a special booth or tent was erected to accommo- 

 date the justices, as was the case in part of Rockingham forest 

 in the sixteenth century. 



The swainmotes sometimes assembled in the open air, but 

 far oftener in the respective lodges of the different wards, as in 

 Needwood and Sherwood forests. Charges for the repairs of 

 the lodges are of frequent occurrence in forest accounts. There 

 was generally a central court-house or justice seat where special 

 inquisitions were held, with accommodation if required for the 

 keeper or chief forester, and with a chapel annexed, as in the 

 New Forest and the Forest of the Peak. There is a Lancashire 

 instance of a swainmote being held in a chapel. 



