THE FOREST AGISTMENTS 45 



in a subsequent chapter. The freeholders of Needwood forest, 

 in 1680, decided that sheep found pasturing in the forest were 

 to be forfeited, and twelve shillings a day fine for each sheep ! 



Sheep-farming on the royal demesnes in districts associated 

 with forests, and therefore found in forest accounts, occur 

 occasionally, notably in the forests of Pickering and Peak 

 Forest. The sheep are usually divided into wethers (multones), 

 ewes (oves, or oves matrices), two-year-olds (bidentes}, hogs, or 

 male one-year-olds (hogastri), gimmers, female sheep from first 

 to second shearing (j'erct'e^, and lambs. Milking ewes and 

 the making of sheep-cheese was usual throughout mediaeval 

 England. Certain particulars relative to this custom will be 

 found under the Peak Forest. 



GOATS. The turning out of goats to pasture, even in the 

 wildest parts of a forest, was unlawful ; save in occasional very 

 restricted areas, under express licence. By tainting the pasture, 

 they effectually banished the deer. The Scotch law of the 

 forest provided that if goats were found for a third time in a 

 forest, the forester was to hang one of them by the horns on 

 a tree; whilst for a fourth time he was forthwith to slay one, 

 and leave its bowels in the place, in token that they were found 

 there. 



In the lodgment or adjudication of claims before the eyre, 

 goats are often expressly excluded. Thus the prioress of 

 Wykeham, at the fourteenth-century Pickering eyre, claimed 

 common of pasture in certain woods and adjoining wastes for 

 all animals except goats ; and when not mentioned, they were 

 certainly tacitly excluded. On the other hand, at the same 

 eyre, the claims of Gilbert de Ayton to pasture goats in the 

 moors and woods of Hutton Bushel, within the covert and 

 without, at all times of the year, and of Ralph de Hasting in 

 his woods and moors at Allerston, Cross Cliff and Staindale 

 were allowed. Certain stray goats found in the forest of Mara, 

 Cheshire, in 1271, were forfeited to the master forester. The 

 tenants of Broughton, in the Lancashire forest of Amounder- 

 ness, had common pasture granted them at Fulwood, in 1334, 

 for all animals save goats. At a swainmote in Wyersdale 

 forest, in the same county, held at Whitsuntide,. 1479, eight 

 transgressors were presented for keeping goats ; the goats 

 numbered forty-one, eight of which belonged to the prioress of 



