THE FOREST OF OXFORDSHIRE 259 



obtained three oaks in 1229 towards the building of his houses 

 at Eston. In the following year Earl Ferrers received fifteen 

 oaks in aid of his manor house at Stamford, which was then 

 being rebuilt, and a little later he had a grant of five does 

 from the same forest. 



On yth February of this year, Thomas de Langley, the 

 forester-of-fee, paid the exceedingly heavy fine of 100 to the 

 king that he might be quit of the results of forest trespasses, 

 of which he had been convicted a few days earlier, namely, on 

 the Feast of the Purification, before John de Monemue and his 

 associates, justices of the forest pleas, when four acres of land 

 in Wychwood, given him by King John, had been resumed 

 by the Crown. 



At the time when these pleas were being held, the king 

 commanded John de Monemue to give to the prior of Cold 

 Norton ten dry roers for his hearth. Two years later it was 

 found that the prior had never received this wood, and a re- 

 newed order to the same effect was issued to Peter de Rivallis, 

 chief justice of the forests. 



About this period a large supply of fuel wood was granted 

 to the Dominicans of Oxford and to the hospital of St. John 

 Baptist, Oxford, and five oaks to John de Beauchamp. 



The nuns of Godstowe obtained from Henry III., in 1231, 

 the tithe of all deer taken in this forest, whether by the king 

 hunting in person or otherwise. 



As to Shotover forest, orders were issued to the keeper and 

 verderers in 1222, to suffer the hospital of St. Bartholomew, 

 Oxford, to take one hundred horseloads of dry wood for fuel. 

 In the following year twenty tie-beams (copulas} were ordered 

 to be supplied out of Shotover forest to William, the chaplain 

 of the Bishop of Winchester, towards the repair of the church 

 of St. Budoc, Oxford, beneath the castle ; it had been thrown 

 down for strategic purposes during the recent war. In the 

 same year, 1223, the necessary timber for constructing a gaol 

 at Oxford and for repairing the castle was obtained from 

 Shotover. In 1229, when Peter Mimekan was bailiff of Shot- 

 over forest, George de Crancumbe obtained four dry leafless 

 roers for fuel. In 1230 there was an order which throws a little 

 light on the vexed question of the nature of the roer or robur ; 

 at all events, this entry on the Close Rolls seems to show that 



