CHAPTER V 

 THE FOREST AGISTMENTS 



A^ART from the beasts of the forest and chase, or the wild 

 animals, every forest district had its quota of domestic 

 animals, feeding regularly or occasionally within its 

 bounds. These were subject to the strict oversight and direc- 

 tion of the agisters, whose office has already been explained. 

 In almost every case, these animals were the property of the 

 tenants of the forest or its purlieus. Dartmoor was a remark- 

 able exception to this rule, inasmuch as almost every parish 

 in Devonshire had certain rights of pasturage if it chose to 

 exercise them. 



All forests were liable to have agistment and pannage sus- 

 pended altogether or in parts, for a certain year or more, if 

 the circumstances of the case seemed to need it. Particular 

 mention of this is made in a charter of Henry III. to the 

 priory of Ivy Church in Clarendon forest 



In several forests, notably Essex, there was also a regular 

 winter interval, though variable in duration, when all agist- 

 ment was prohibited, for the purpose of reserving the food for 

 the deer ; this was called Winter Heyning. Mention is made 

 subsequently of the fence month. 



SWINE and PANNAGE. Swine were usually only allowed in 

 forests during the season called the time of pannage, when 

 they fed upon the acorns and beech mast which had then fallen. 

 The mast season lasted from i4th September to :8th November. 

 Under the English forest laws of Henry II., four knights were 

 appointed to see to the agistment, and to receive the king's 

 pannage, which in well-wooded forests amounted to a consider- 

 able sum. No man might agist his own woods in a forest 

 before those of the king were agisted ; the agistment of the 



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