THE FORESTS OF CHESHIRE 135 



the annual value of 40^., and this for the last twenty years, so 

 that there was neither agistment nor pannage for anyone 

 else ; he was declared in mercy, and the eighty acres were to 

 be taken from him. In another case a man had erected a mill 

 without licence, and the building was ordered to be pulled 

 down ; and in another case a man was in mercy for opening a 

 marl pit. 



The vert presentments of Wirral forest were exceedingly 

 numerous. They were all cases of felling trees, not mere 

 lopping. Their values varied from 2s. to 40-?. Like present- 

 ments were also very numerous from Mara and Moudrem ; the 

 value charges, in addition to court fines, varied from 2s. to 2os. 

 In some cases the transgressions were of a wholesale character, 

 such as that of Thomas de Erdeswyk, who had felled sixty 

 oaks. He was dead, but his wife appeared, and was fined a 

 mark. Sir William de Legh, deputy keeper of Mara and Mou- 

 drem under Richard Doun, was charged by the jury with 

 selling wood out of the lordship to the value of more than 

 ;ioo, and the same in conjunction with the sub-forester, doing 

 the like in the forest of Moudrem to the extent of 100 marks. 

 It is interesting to note the appreciation shown for a well- 

 grown and beautiful tree ; Peter de Thornton was charged with 

 felling and carry ing off una pulcherrima guercus, valued at4cw. 



The venison cases show that there was an abundance of 

 game, both red and fallow. Richard Spark was charged with 

 killing many harts and hinds, as well as bucks and does, in 

 Delamere forest, the exact number not being known. In 

 Wirral forest two men who had killed a stag were released 

 from imprisonment on paying the respective fines of 40^. and 

 2os. In another case in the same forest the transgressors had 

 been hunting deer with a strangely mixed pack, consisting of 

 a greyhound, a mastiff, and a cur. 



The presentments at these pleas were made, for Wirral, by 

 William de Stanley, keeper ; Henry de Acton, riding forester, 

 and by Richard de Haydock and five other foresters ; those for 

 Mara et Moudrem, or Delamere, by Richard Doun, keeper, 

 Thomas de Clyve, riding forester, and by Robert Shefeld and 

 six other foresters. 



