THE FOREST OF GALTRES 125 



drawn up in 1651. " Wee find," say the Commissioners, 

 "that within the Honor of Pickering there is a Forest, a 

 Chace, and a Parke (as it did appeare unto us by an ancient 

 Veredict, and by the Testimony of many ancient Inhabitants), 

 and also certaine Lands that are no part of the Forest." 

 Neither red nor fallow deer are mentioned, but they could not 

 have been extinct. 



The honor of Pickering had been settled on Queen Henrietta 

 Maria as part of her jointure. At the Restoration it reverted 

 to her, and a survey was made in 1661. It is therein stated : 

 "There is a forest called the forest of Pickeringe Leighe, and 

 a park called Blandesbie parke belonging to the Honor. The 

 Parke is stored with deare, but the game within the forest is 

 almost quite decayed." 



GALTRES 



In the centre of Yorkshire, extending right up to the walls 

 of York, was the great hunting district known as the forest 

 of Galtres. It stretched at one time about twenty miles north- 

 ward from York to the ancient town of Aldburgh ; being royal 

 demesne, it was a favourite hunting-ground of the Saxon 

 kings. From the days of Henry III. downwards, the incidents 

 connected with this forest and its administration are of frequent 

 occurrence, and it is strange that it has not found an historian. 

 The exigencies of space only permit a few brief extracts. The 

 two Yorkshire forests, whose officials received express directions 

 as to the disposal of the cablish after the great storm of 1222, 

 were those of Galtres and of the district between the Ouse and 

 the Derwent. In 1227 Henry III. ordered the bailiffs of 

 Hugh de Neville in the forest of Galtres to supply wood and 

 charcoal for three days for the use of the archbishop in his 

 house at York. In the same year the king gave four oaks out 

 of this forest for the repair of the bridge at Topcliffe, and ten 

 oaks to the prior of Marton for the building of his church. 



A perambulation of the forests of Yorkshire was made in 

 1229, when it was certified that the whole forest of Galtres, the 

 forest between the Ouse and the Derwent, and the forest of 

 Farndale were true ancient forests of the king. 



In 1231 oaks were furnished from this forest for the repair of 

 mills at York, and on October of that year the king ordered 



