276 THE ROYAL FORESTS OF ENGLAND 



the abbey of Gloucester. In December of that year the king 

 was hunting here in person, and he instructed Roger de 

 Clifford to hand over to the sheriff of Gloucester, for due con- 

 veyance, five great boars, fifteen hinds, and the rest of the 

 results of the royal hunt. In the summer of the following 

 year the king was supplied with ten harts from this forest. In 

 July, 1231, when John, the huntsman, was taking harts for the 

 king's use at Dean, he was ordered to dispatch a hart without 

 delay to Eleanor, the king's cousin. From these and many 

 later entries it is quite clear that the red deer largely predomi- 

 nated in Dean forest during the first half of the thirteenth 

 century, though there was a small admixture of fallow deer ; 

 but the proportions were reversed before the time Edward I. 

 came to the throne. 



The regulations with regard to the forges of this forest for 

 iron-making were frequent, stringent, and changeable. The 

 necessity for limiting them arose from the quantity of fuel they 

 required. The manor of Cantelupe had early chartered right 

 to an itinerant forge, and endeavours were made from time to 

 time to confine its consumption to dry or wind-fallen wood. 

 In 1228 the king gave orders that there were not to be more 

 than three itinerant forges worked by the royal servants. In 

 the following year the abbot of Faxley was ordered to confine 

 his itinerant forge to the thorn thickets (spissitudinibus} on 

 the confines of the forest. So much difficulty arose from the 

 abbey's insistence on its old chartered rights to two forges, 

 that in 1244 the Crown compromised the matter by the hand- 

 some grant of 872 acres of woodland in exchange for the 

 charter's surrender. 



In 1225 Henry III. granted a recluse, or hermit, named 

 Panye de Lench, four acres of land in the forest and two oaks 

 wherewith to build himself a house. 



It is stated in Nicholls' history of this forest that the first re- 

 corded perambulation took place in the reign of Edward I., 

 but this is an error. A perambulation was undertaken by an 

 inquest of twelve knights in 1228, with the result that the 

 bounds were declared to be the same as in the days of 

 Henry II. The forest occupied the whole peninsula ground 

 between the Wye and the Severn, proceeding north-east as 

 far as Newent, and north as far as Ross, save that the Bishop 



