THE FORESTS OF STAFFORDSHIRE 147 



came up, said he had pursued the hart, and claimed the whole 

 of it. They skinned it ; John Gyffard took half of it, and the 

 nuns had the other half. This case was brought before the 

 justices at the eyre of 1286. The nuns were pardoned for 

 the good of the king's soul, as they were poor. Although 

 the hart was taken outside the forest, it was the king's chase 

 and put up by his dogs within the forest, and taken in front of 

 them against the assize. The sheriff was therefore ordered 

 to arrest the two Johns ; they were taken and committed to 

 prison, but released on paying the respective fines of a mark 

 and 2os. The case of the wolf killing a buck in this forest in 

 1281 has been already cited. 



The Close Rolls of Edward I. give evidence, from the 

 various royal gifts, of a good supply of fallow deer, with 

 a smaller number of red deer on the forest or chase of Cannock. 

 In August, 1277, the king ordered the keeper of Cannock 

 Forest to permit William de Middleton, Archdeacon of Canter- 

 bury, to take by his men all the fat harts and bucks that were 

 fit to kill that season, and to aid and counsel the men in so 

 doing. In the same month, 1279, the king granted Roger 

 Mortimer ten bucks and two harts from Cannock. In 1280 

 Anthony Bek had four bucks, Richard de Tybetot the same 

 number, and Philip Marmyon three. In 1282, Ralph de 

 Hengham had six bucks, Henry de Shaventon, Reginald de 

 Legh, and Otto de Grandi Sono four each, and the Prior of 

 Stone one, all out of this forest as gifts from the king. Ralph 

 Basset, of Drayton, had six bucks in 1283. Roger Lestrange, 

 justice of the forest, was instructed, in July, 1284, to cause the 

 Bishop of Worcester to have twelve bucks of the king's gift 

 out of the forest of Cannock ; and in the same year Reginald 

 de Legh received two bucks. On December 28th, 1284, the 

 king sent word to Roger Lestrange that if the order given in 

 the summer for the bucks for the Bishop of Worcester had not 

 been executed, it was to be changed to six live bucks and six 

 live does from Cannock, to stock that prelate's park at Alve- 

 church. 



The king was also generous with timber gifts, oaks from 

 Cannock for building purposes being bestowed on the priory 

 of St. Thomas, Stafford, the priory of Cokehill, and the 

 Franciscan friars of Lichfield. When the king was at Bre- 



