THE BEASTS OF THE FOREST 35 



in Sherwood forest, and this right was held to warrant certain 

 burgesses keeping greyhounds at an eyre of 1538. 



Thomas Bret, the vicar of Scalby, in Pickering forest, and 

 four others, were each fined 6d., in 1336, for making folds of 

 small thorns a vert offence in Scalby Hay to guard their 

 sheep from the fox. 



In Turbervile's Noble Art of Venerie or Hunting (1575), the 

 hunting of the fox and badger are described together. Both 

 were hunted, or rather drawn, by terriers. He remarks : 



" As touching- foxes, I account small pastime of hunting of them, 

 especially within the ground ; for as soone as they perceyve the 

 terryers, if they yearne hard and gx>e neare unto them, they will 

 bolte and come out streyghtwaies, unlesse it be when the bitch hathe 

 yong cubbes : then they will not forsake their yong ones though they 

 die for it." 



When the fox was hunted ''above grounde," after the earth 

 had been stopped, the hounds of the chase thus employed are 

 described as greyhounds, showing that the fox was usually 

 coursed by sight, and not followed by scent. 



The HARE was the principal beast of the warren. The large 

 majority of chartered rights for the hunting of the fox within 

 forests included the hare. The forest pleas of Somerset, in 

 1287, show a most remarkable exception as to the beasts of the 

 forest in the case of the warren of Somerton, within whose 

 bound the king preserved the hare, and inquests were actually 

 held on those found dead. 



At the eyre held at Rockingham in 1285, certain men were 

 presented for setting nets for hares in Brigstock park. 



A curious entry in the Close Rolls of 1276 mentions that the 

 keeper of Bernwood forest was ordered to supply Sir Francis 

 de Bononia (a famous secretary of Edward I.), with several 

 young bucks and does, and also four live hares and six live 

 rabbits, to be placed in the king's garden at Oxford. 



At an eyre held at Sherborne in 1288, the jury protested 

 against the freemen of Cranborne Chase being deprived of 

 their dogs, wherewith they had a right to hunt the hare and 

 the fox. 



The Coucher Book of the Duchy of Lancaster contains a 

 great variety of presentments for hare hunting and hare taking, 



