34 THE ROYAL FORESTS OF ENGLAND 



good because of the upturned earth, then they should go at other 

 times in the summer (as on St. Barnabas Day, June nth), when the 

 wolves had whelps (catulos) to take and destroy them, but at no 

 other times ; and they might take with them a sworn servant to carry 

 the traps (ingenid) ; they were to carry a bill-hook and spear, and 

 hunting-knife at their belt, but neither bows nor arrows ; and they 

 were to have with them an unlawed mastiff trained to the work. All 

 this they were to do at their own charges, but they had no other 

 duties to discharge in the forest." 



In the records of Cannock forest, Staffordshire, for 1281, 

 there is an entry of a wolf having killed a fat buck ; the flesh 

 was given to the lepers of Freford. 



The Fox was always held to be noxious in England, and no 

 penalty was attached to its destruction. Nevertheless, it was 

 a breach of law to hunt them within a royal forest, save by 

 special licence; the obvious reasons being that such hunting, 

 if unrestricted, would disturb the king's game, and prove an 

 irresistible temptation to poaching with not a few. 



William Rufus licensed the abbot of Chertsey to hunt the 

 fox in the Surrey side of Windsor forest. 



Richard I. and Henry III. granted licence to the abbot of 

 Waltham to hunt the fox in the Essex forest. 



King John, in 1204, gave the abbot of St. Mary's, York, 

 liberty to hunt the fox freely throughout all the royal forests of 

 Yorkshire. The abbess of Barking had like rights in the 

 forest adjoining her house. It need not be supposed that these 

 religious superiors were expected by these licences to hunt 

 personally though occasionally an irregular abbot might thus 

 indulge the licence applied to their duly commissioned 

 servants. 



Licence was granted in 1279 to Adam Attewell, and those 

 whom he took with him, to take foxes throughout the forest of 

 Salop, by traps and other means, and to carry them away. 



Everyone of England's forests had one or more of the 

 neighbouring landowners holding charters authorising the 

 pursuit of the fox with hounds, save in the fence month ; most 

 of these charters dated from the thirteenth and some from the 

 twelfth century. In the large majority of cases, the hunting of 

 the hare was associated with that of the fox. The burgesses 

 of Nottingham had a chartered right to pursue the fox and hare 



