232 THE ROYAL FORESTS OF ENGLAND 



tershire (1777), with respect to the disafforesting of Leicester 

 forest in 29 Henry III., has no reference whatever to Charn- 

 wood as there asserted. 



Mr. Monk, in his Agricultural Report for Leicestershire of 

 1794, stated that Charnwood forest, containing from 15,000 

 to 16,000 acres, would prove to be useful and valuable land 

 if enclosed over three-fourths of its area. After much opposi- 

 tion from commoners an Act of Inclosure was passed in 1808, 

 and the final account of claim was signed in 1812. 



The forest or wood adjoining the town of Leicester, although 

 it eventually came to the Crown, was never a royal forest, as 

 it had no forest courts of any kind. It is named in the Domes- 

 day Survey of the borough, wherein it is stated that Hereswood 

 was four miles (leuca) long by one in breadth. This great 

 wood belonged to the Earls of Leicester, who readily granted 

 special privileges therein to the burgesses. These rights are 

 of particular interest, and are fully illustrated in the old 

 borough records which have been recently ably edited by 

 Miss Bateson. This great wood or forest was disafforested in 

 1628, and the deer killed or given away ; but as it was an 

 earl's forest and not the king's, its history must be here 

 passed by. 



The only true forest subject, that is, to forest laws in the 

 county of Leicester, was a not inconsiderable section of the 

 eastern portion of the shire that adjoined to Rutland ; and as 

 Oakham was the centre and usual justice seat of this forest, 

 the larger part of which was in the smaller county, it some- 

 times all went by the name of the forest of Rutland, and at 

 other times as Rutland and Leicester. 



The pleas of venison held at Oakham, in March, 1209, were 

 attended by regarders both of Leicester and Rutland. The 

 knights of Rutland gave a verdict to the effect that at the 

 summons of the justices of the forest, all men of Leicestershire 

 ought to come to the pleas who dwell outside the forest as far 

 as two leagues. Several cases were heard at this eyre which 

 pertained to Leicestershire. The entrails and antler of a hart 

 were found under the mill of Robert, the son of Adam of Skeffi- 

 ington. The antler was fractured as though done with an axe. 

 The miller declared he knew nothing about it, but he was 

 taken into custody until inquiries could be made, and the mill 



