THE FORESTS OF WILTS 329 



It was divided into north and south bailiwicks under a 

 single keeper. Documentary evidence from the beginning 

 of Henry III.'s reign is abundant with regard to this forest. 

 The perambulation temp. Edward I. and certain later par- 

 ticulars are set forth in Hoare's Wilts (iv. 183-190). 



SELWOOD 



The ancient forest of Selwood covered the south-western 

 confines of Wiltshire at the extremity of the hundred of West- 

 bury, together with a large portion of East Somersetshire, and 

 extended itself southward from Frome just across the borders 

 into Dorsetshire. Collinson (Somerset, ii. 195-6) gives a list 

 of keepers of this forest from John to Henry VI. Special 

 privileges in this forest were granted to the house of leprous 

 women of Maiden Bradley in the thirteenth century. The 

 material for its history, as yet unwritten, is abundant. It was 

 disafforested in the time of Charles I. 



