THE BEASTS OF THE FOREST 39 



Another offender at the same eyre was presented for killing six 

 pheasants with a hawk. 



Pheasants are mentioned in a raid on St. Leonards forest, 

 Sussex, in 1295. 



HERONS. There are several incidental notices of herons and 

 heronries among the forest proceedings. In the raid that 

 was made in 1295 on the forest, or rather the chase of St. 

 Leonards, Sussex, herons formed part of the booty that was 

 unlawfully removed. In 1334 Sir Walter de London, the 

 king's almoner, received the tithe of 157 herons that had been 

 killed in Pickering forest. Mention is also made of herons 

 sent up to London, out of Clarendon forest, for the king's 

 table, on several occasions in the fourteenth century. 



WOODCOCKS. The accounts of Duffield forest for 1313-14 

 make mention, under the ward of Hulland, of 4^. 6d. for " ix 

 cokschutes." A cockshut was a large net suspended between 

 two poles, employed to catch or shut in woodcocks ; it was 

 used chiefly in the twilight. At the southern extremity of this 

 ward is a farm still known as Cockshut. The same place-name 

 survives on the sites of several of our old forests ; and licences 

 to use cockshuts were granted at swainmotes in Derbyshire, 

 Hampshire, and Wiltshire. Reference to woodcocks will also 

 be found under Galtres forest. 



General licences for fowling in specific parts of a forest were 

 sometimes granted in the local courts. On several occasions 

 bird fowlers were attached at fourteenth and fifteenth century 

 swainmotes in Duffield Frith, Clarendon forest, etc. ; and a few 

 examples of presentments at eyres for a like general offence 

 are also extant. Thus, at Pickering, in 1334, Henry the 

 Fowler of Barugh, Adam the Fowler of Ayton, and two others, 

 were summoned and fined for catching birds in the forest by 

 means of nets, birdlime, and other devices. The general dis- 

 turbance of the deer would doubtless cause such action to be 

 considered a breach of the assize of the forest. 



BEES and HONEY. The fifth chapter of the Regard, issued 

 in 1229, related to the king's right to the honey in the royal 

 demesne woods of the forests. At the Chester eyre of 1271, 

 the hereditary chief forester of Mara and Moudrem claimed all 

 swarms of bees as part of his extensive perquisites. 



At an attachment court of the Lancashire forests of Quern- 



