58 THE ROYAL FORESTS OE ENGLAND 



enclosure, used for the snaring of deer. In 1246, the forester 

 of Brigstock park, Rockingham forest, found two men 

 setting five snares of horsehair for taking fawns or hares. 

 The men were taken before the verderers, and gave pledges 

 to appear at the next eyre. In 1251, a trap was found set 

 in the same park. Robert, chaplain of Sudborough, was 

 suspected, and on his house being searched the woodwork 

 of a trap with the cord broke was found ; on the cord was 

 deer's hair. In 1255, a snare, consisting of four cords 

 stretched round a dish of water, was found in the wood of 

 Bassethawe (Rockingham). The foresters watched all night 

 to see if anyone would come, but in vain. On the following 

 day an inquisition was held by the four neighbouring town- 

 ships, before the stewards of the forest and one of the 

 verderers. Sir Robert Basset, the owner of the wood, found 

 twelve pledges to produce Peter, the forester of the wood, 

 whenever required ; the cords were handed to the verderer to 

 produce at the next eyre, and the wood of Bassethawe was 

 taken into the king's hands. 



The commonest kind of deer snares seem to have taken two 

 forms, occasionally both combined ; the one was the inter- 

 twining of cords between stout stakes in the midst of a usual 

 deer track, and the other the suspending of halters or looped 

 ropes in the trees overhead to catch the deer by their heads 

 or horns. In 1260, five workmen employed in Guildford park 

 in mending the pales and cutting down oaks for that purpose, 

 set cords to entangle the deer that came to feed on the fresh 

 oak leaves. The cords were found by the park-keepers, and 

 the men bound over to appear at the next eyre. There was an 

 interval of ten years before an eyre was held, and meanwhile 

 two of the delinquents had died. The justices, in 1270, fined 

 the other three half a mark each. 



Two labourers in Duffield Frith were committed, in 1321, by 

 the verderers to appear before the justices to answer a charge 

 of having set cart-ropes in an opening in the pale fence of 

 Shottle park, with halters suspended in the trees overhead. 

 There is another instance of a like snaring of deer, with a cart- 

 rope and smaller cart gear, at Weybridge, Hunts, in 1455. 



The venison indictments at the New Windsor eyre of 1488, 

 included a charge against Thomas a Clowe, of Clewer, and 



