FOREST OF HUNTINGDONSHIRE 271 



with greyhounds in the forest ; but the most serious case 

 before this eyre was that of Richard Weston, a servant of the 

 abbot of Waltham, and William and Bartholomew Turkil, of 

 Whittlesey, men of the homage of the prior of Ely, who, 

 with five other unknown men, took forty roe deer in the marsh 

 of Kings Delph, on iyth December, 1254, by order of brother 

 Gervais of Arlesay, of the abbey of Waltham, who harboured 

 them. 



At a swainmote held at Weybridge at Michaelmas, 1451, 

 before John Collam and Richard Est, verderers, John Ilger, 

 John Roper, and William Mernyk, foresters, said on their 

 oath that they had no presentments to make. There was a like 

 result to the swainmote held at the following Martinmas. In 

 the following year there was only a single presentment at the 

 Midsummer swainmote, when a husbandman was convicted of 

 killing a fawn with a noose (cordulo); whilst at the Michaelmas 

 swainmote there was again only one presentment, namely, of 

 another husbandman who had killed a doe with a "curdogge." 

 The two next swainmotes were virgin sessions. At Michael- 

 mas, 1454, it was reported, as the sole business, that an 

 unknown person had killed a fawn with a greyhound. The 

 swainmote of Midsummer, 1455, affords an instance of a rough 

 method of night poaching adopted in this forest. Three 

 husbandmen were convicted of having placed at night a cart- 

 rope and two small cords above the cartrope in such a position 

 as to take the wild beasts of the king ; the foresters confiscated 

 the ropes. The actual words are unum cartrope cum duobus 

 cordulis vocatis guarys super eundem cartrope. The word 

 guarys was probably a local pronunciation of the term gear, 

 implying small ropes used as a rough kind of harness. A 

 snare of this kind most likely consisted of a strong rope 

 stretched near the ground in a deer path to cause the deer to 

 trip, with nooses suspended above to catch their heads. 



At this last swainmote the foresters reported before the 

 verderers that the beasts of the king (deer) were dying every 

 day of the murrain, and that about sixty fawns, by a careful 

 estimate, had been killed by foxes and other vermin since the 

 previous court which had been held at Martinmas. 



On the back of the membrane recording these Weybridge 

 swainmotes, diverse warrants for the delivery of timber 



