278 THE ROYAL FORESTS OF ENGLAND 



instances roe deer are recorded. Boats on the river were much 

 used by venison as well as vert trespassers. 



The regard of the forest, which had been taken in prepara- 

 tion for the eyre, is set forth in great detail on six membranes 

 the old and new assarts, the old and new purprestures, and 

 the survey and destruction of woods. In the last case it was 

 presented that the wood of chestnuts had much deteriorated 

 since the last eyre, through the bad custody of Ralph Abben- 

 hall, the forester-in-fee of the baily of Abbenh^.11. The re- 

 garders found there thirty-four stumps of chestnuts that had 

 recently been felled, of which Roger de Clifford, the justice, 

 had had two for making tables. A wood of sweet chestnuts 

 was a great rarity in England, and evidently much prized. 

 When Henry II. founded Flaxley abbey, he gave the monks the 

 tithes of the chestnuts of Dean. The old name for Flaxley, as 

 mentioned in the foundation charter, was the valley of Castiard, 

 a place-name probably derived from the presence of the chest- 

 nut trees. The vert presentments of this eyre show that the 

 chestnut, from its rarity, was about three times the value of the 

 oak, namely, 8s. a tree. 



The regarders also reported as to the boats owned by the 

 tenants, which were so often used for the illegal exporting of 

 wood and timber. The regarders estimated the damage done 

 to the king by each boat in sums varying from half a mark to 

 forty shillings. These sums, with a usual additional fine of 

 i2d., were exacted by the justices. 



This highly interesting roll of forest pleas, one of the 

 fullest extant, which specially deserves being printed in extenso, 

 concludes with long lists of mainpernors or the givers of bail, 

 and with statements of claims to liberties and the names of the 

 attorneys by whom they were supported. 



At the time of this eyre there were found to be, according to 

 Nicholls, no fewer than seventy-two of the itinerary or movable 

 forges within the forest ; the Crown received for licensing them 

 7-r. each a year. 



Mr. Nicholls has printed much concerning the receipts and 

 expenditure of this Crown forest, from the Pipe Rolls of 1130 

 downwards, and this could easily be supplemented by further 

 particulars, especially of the reign of Edward II. Throughout 

 the fourteenth century the forest of Dean was frequently called 



