THE FOREST OF WESTMORELAND 95 



master of game, Richard Vikars and Thomas Nycholson, 

 foresters of Ashdale, and William Fletcher and Nicholas 

 Hunter, foresters of Wastedalehead. The sub-forest of West- 

 wood had the same master of game, and Micah Avon bow- 

 bearer, with Richard Dykes and Thomas Wilson keepers. 

 The sub-forest of Nicholl had Sir William Musgrave as master 

 of game. The keepers of Wastedale had a hart in summer and 

 a hind in winter, equally divided between them. 



An expense roll of this forest for the first year of Elizabeth is 

 chiefly occupied with the details of repairs done to the " court 

 houses " of Penrith, Sowerby, and Gaystall. Repairs were 

 also done to the leads, and the glass and iron of the windows 

 of Kidkirk chancel at a charge of 3 6s. Sd. 



Charles II., on his marriage with Katharine of Braganza, 

 settled on her, as part of the royal dower, the forest of Ingle- 

 wood. 



In 1696, the forest of Inglewood was granted by the Crown 

 to William Bentinck, first Earl of Portsmouth, as an appurten- 

 ance of the honor of Penrith. 



In Jefferson's Cumberland, published in 1840, it is stated 

 that the forest or swainmote courts for the seigniory of Hesket 

 were still held annually on June nth in the open air, on the 

 great north road to Carlisle, the place being marked by a stone 

 table placed before a thorn called Court Thorn ; at this court a 

 variety of annual dues were paid to the lord of the forest. 



On Wragmire Moss, in the same parish, a well-known 

 ancient oak, spoken of as the last tree of Inglewood Forest, fell 

 ''from sheer old age " on June i3th, 1823. 



WESTMORELAND 



A considerable tract of wild land in this county was rendered 

 subject to the fierce rule of the early forest laws in the time of 

 Henry II. and John ; but all this was disafforested by the 

 Forest Charter, 1217, which only recognised as forests those 

 tracts of country which had been in that condition when 

 Henry II. came to the throne. In 1225, grave complaint was 

 lodged by the knights and proved men of Westmoreland that 

 certain magnates of the county were continuing to treat the 

 disafforested demesne as though still subject to forest fines 



