THE FORESTS OF HAMPSHIRE 311 



When pleas of this forest were held in September, 1490, 

 at Winchester, it was returned that Sir George Nevill was 

 keeper ; Sir James Awdley, lieutenant ; Ralph Shorter, 

 forester, and John Wilton, his deputy ; William Knight, 

 ranger ; and William Froste and John Hamond, verderers. 

 William Mody and his fellows were present as regarders, and 

 there were two juries sworn of the men of the hundreds of 

 Somborne and Buddlesgate. 



For fee timber Richard Curson, as deputy of the justices, 

 received six beeches ; the keeper, two roers, and his deputy, 

 a beech ; the lieutenant, a roer ; the ranger, a beech ; each 

 verderer, an oak and a beech ; the regarders, two beeches and 

 and a roer ; the two sessional clerks, four beeches ; and the 

 under-sheriff, a roer. Richard Curson also received a buck. 



At a swainmote of West Bere, held on 5th June, 1475, 

 before John Whitehede and John Hamond, the verderers, 

 Robert Bailly, forester, presented that John Ewerby, lord of 

 Farley, claimed to have the right to deer that escaped into his 

 lordship, and that he had killed several head at Hambledon 

 and Queentree. 



At another swainmote, held on ist June, 1488, before 

 William Frost and John Hamond, verderers, Robert Bailly, 

 the forester, again presented the lord of Farley for having 

 killed several does and fawns in the previous August in the 

 woods of West Bere. He also presented Richard Mathew, 

 lately parish chaplain of Sparsholt, and then living at Crawley, 

 for having killed a doe with bow and arrows. A more serious 

 charge was preferred against a yeoman and a miller of Win- 

 chester, who with a large number of disorderly persons hunted 

 the forest with greyhounds and two other kinds of dogs, 

 namely " rachys et kenettes," to the grave destruction of the 

 deer. 



The woods and forests commissioners' thirteenth report, 

 issued in 1792, is devoted to this forest. It is described as in 

 the south-east part of the county and within eight miles of 

 Portsmouth. The perambulation of 1300 is printed in the 

 appendix. The forest was then divided into two walks, the 

 East and the West. Following the boundaries laid down in 

 1688, the commissioners estimated the area as at least twenty- 

 five square miles, about a third of which was enclosed, and 



