HOUNDS AND HUNTING 57 



toil for deer, of which nets usually formed a component part ; 

 but the definition generally given "a net for taking deer" 

 is not sufficient. Earth ramparts and wattled work were also 

 generally used in its construction ; it was, in fact, a kind of 

 cunning enclosure wherein the deer could be taken alive, as is 

 implied in the term deer-hay. A "buckstalle vel dere-hay " 

 is named in presentments of Clarendon forest. 



Matthew de Hathersage, a baron, was presented at the eyre 

 of 1251 for having a buckstall in his great wood at Hather- 

 sage, which was distant barely two bow-shots from the king's 

 forest of the Peak. The baron pleaded that his ancestors had 

 always had a buckstall in their wood, and that formerly it was 

 still nearer to the bounds of Peak Forest. The upshot of the 

 matter was that the decision went against Matthew, who had 

 to pay a fine of twenty marks. 



The master forester of Duffield Frith was instructed to see 

 that there were no buckstalls set upon the borders of that 

 forest, and the ministers of each ward were enjoined to pre- 

 sent at the woodmote the setting of "any haye or buckstakes, 

 trappes, or springes for deere." 



Among the claims at the Pickering eyre of 1334, the prior of 

 Malton claimed that he and his men were quit of all buck- 

 stall service, which he explained to mean a duty laid on all 

 other forest residents of assembling for the purpose of collect- 

 ing the deer into an enclosure which they have to make for 

 that purpose, and failing, are heavily fined. The prior failed, 

 however, to make this part of his claim good. The prior of 

 Ellerton at the same time claimed a like exemption from 

 buckstall attendance, and on the production of a charter 

 of Henry III. his claim in this respect was allowed. 



An instance occurred at the forest pleas of Pickering in 

 1488, in which the term buckstall was used simply for snar- 

 ing-nets. It was then presented that one Thomas Thomson, 

 a yeoman, with a number of unknown persons, entered 

 T31andsby park at midnight with a horse laden cum retibus 

 vocatis buckstalles et ropes, killing about twenty does. An Act 

 of Parliament, a few years later, prohibited anyone who was not 

 the owner of a park, chase, or forest, using a buckstall under 

 a penalty of 10. 



There were various devices, apart from the buckstall or 



