336 THE ROYAL FORESTS OF ENGLAND 



inland, and was about twenty-five miles in length from east to 

 west. That Exmoor was a hunting-ground before the Con- 

 quest is made manifest by the fact that Withypool, according 

 to the Domesday Survey, was held by three foresters in the 

 days of Edward the Confessor. Whatever may have been the 

 area of Exmoor forest in the time of the Conqueror Mr. 

 Rawle believes it to have been above 60,000 acres it was con- 

 siderably increased by the encroachments of later Norman 

 kings, particularly of John. 



A perambulation of 1279, at the Public Record Office, gives 

 a circuit of about fifty miles, and included within the forest 

 area almost the whole of the parish of Oare, portions of 

 Culbone, Dulverton, Exford, Porlock, and Winsford, and the 

 whole of Hawkridge and Withypool, together with the modern 

 parish of Exmoor. The perambulation stated that King John 

 had added to the original forest a considerable number of 

 adjacent parishes and manors, to an aggregate of about 20,000 

 additional acres, which included East and West Luccombe, 

 Doverhay, Stoke Pero, Woodcockleigh, Bossington, Holni- 

 cote, Withycombe, etc. As a consequence of the 1298 peram- 

 bulation for the whole county of Somerset, all the additions 

 made by John to the forest of Exmoor were disafforested, and 

 the ancient bounds as then laid down remained unaltered for 

 several centuries. 



The justices in eyre appointed to hear the Somerset forest 

 pleas are known to have held their courts at Ilchester, Lang- 

 port, Somerton, Taunton, and Wells. Taunton, the nearest of 

 these court towns, was over thirty miles distant from the nearest 

 part of Exmoor, whilst the other towns were all upwards of 

 fifty a distance that could not fail to considerably impede the 

 course of justice and increase its expense. At the eyre held at 

 Ilchester in 1257 by William le Briton and his colleagues, 

 twenty-six vert trespassers were presented from Exmoor ; the 

 highest fine was 5^., which was inflicted on a clerk, William 

 de Bagel ; in another case the fine was 2s. ; the remainder were 

 mulcted in izd. The few cases of venison trespass show that 

 there were both red deer and roebucks on Exmoor ; but there 

 is no mention of fallow deer in this or subsequent pleas and 

 inquisitions. At this eyre there were various presentments for 

 encroachments and for sowing land with wheat, rye, or oats 



