20 THE ROYAL FORESTS OF ENGLAND 



winter. They might not hunt themselves, or even carry a bow, 

 save under warrant or direct order of the keeper, or when 

 training the young dogs according to custom. Foresters had 

 always certain rights of pasturage and pannage, and usually 

 one or two deer and one or two trees during the year. The 

 working forester was generally also paid so much the day, 

 always reckoning seven days to the week, as he was supposed 

 to be ever on duty. 



The foresters of Clarendon, Wilts, eight in number, received 

 2d. a day each, at the rate of 365 days to the year, includ- 

 ing all Sundays and holy days. This rate of payment is 

 mentioned in 1360, and it remained the same in 1483. Two- 

 pence a day was also the usual wage of the Pickering foresters. 

 Occasionally foresters were appointed by letters patent of the 

 Crown ; this was the case with some of the Sherwood foresters, 

 temp. Edward IV., who received 4^. a day, and were allowed 

 to act by deputy. 



There was often a general or itinerant forester for the whole 

 area, who had a higher rate of pay, and, as he was mounted, 

 was frequently called the riding forester. Sometimes the 

 Crown appointed several such foresters, as did Edward I. for 

 Peak Forest at the beginning of his reign, calling them 

 forestarii equitii. In the next century there is record of the 

 Crown appointment of a chief forester for the same district at 

 the very high wage of i2d. a day. Such an officer as this 

 was, at a later period, known in various forests under the 

 name of bow-bearer, from having the right always to carry 

 a bow, personally or at the hands of his attendant. To this 

 office special perquisites were usually attached, and eventually 

 the duties were almost entirely honorary, save that he had to 

 wait upon the king, and regulate the royal hunting, when he 

 came to a particular forest. 



Strictly speaking, the symbol of a royal or chief forester 

 was a bow, whereas that of the ordinary forester was a horn. 



In several of the larger forests, such as those of Lancashire, 

 Cheshire, Dean, Sherwood, and Pickering, there were here- 

 ditary foresters-of-fee. In the Peak Forest, when the question 

 of their origin came up at forest pleas, they always claimed 

 to date back to the days of William Peverel. There were 

 originally four (though afterwards subdivided) for each of the 



