40 THE ROYAL FORESTS OF ENGLAND 



more and Wyersdale, in 1299, several men were presented for 

 taking a byke or nest of wild bees, and carrying the honey to 

 the house of Ralph de Caton, where it was found, and also for 

 burning the oak tree containing the comb ; the tree was valued 

 at Afd. and the honey at 6d. 



A long roll of amercements, imposed at an eyre for Sherwood 

 forest, held at Nottingham in 1334, includes a fine of i2d., in 

 addition to 6d. the value of the honey, on two men, for carrying 

 honey from out of the forest. 



Particular indictments of the Pickering eyre of 1335 included 

 the taking, by one Gilbert Ayton, of a gallon of honey and two 

 pounds of wax out of old tree trunks. Gilbert appeared by 

 attorney, and said that, by the great Charter of the Forest, it 

 was provided that every freeman might have the honey found 

 in his own woods. The indictment itself stated that he found 

 the honey in his own woods of Hutton Bushell and Troutsdale, 

 and therefore he asked for judgment in his favour, and ob- 

 tained it. 



The fifteenth-century directions to the ''collectors" of the 

 different wards of Duffield Frith instructed them to take for 

 the king all bykes of bees. 



The ancient right of the Crown to forest honey may be 

 traced in the claim of the lords of the manor of Wanstead, 

 Essex, in 1489, to the profits of bees, honey, and wax in 

 Wanstead wood. One of the items in the charge at the 

 Epping swainmote of later days was : " If any man do take 

 out of the hollow trees any honie, wax, or swarmes of bees 

 within the forest, yee shall do us to weet." The lord of the 

 manor of Minestead, in the New Forest, claimed the honey in 

 his woods as late as 1852. 



