THE FOREST OF DARTMOOR 341 



in round numbers, an acreage of 60,000. The district is about 

 twenty-eight miles long from north to south, and about twenty- 

 six miles wide from east to west. The nature of this granite 

 table-land makes it certain that Dartmoor was never covered 

 to any considerable extent with timber, although there was 

 doubtless more underwood in places, diversified by occasional 

 growth of oak, alder, and willow in the more sheltered 

 glades. 



By a charter of John, i8th May, 1204, all lands in Devon- 

 shire, save the forests of Dartmoor and Exmoor, were dis- 

 afforested, thus anticipating the great charter of 1215, so far as 

 this county was concerned. 



In 1222 Henry III. directed the bailiffs of the once im- 

 portant borough of Lydford to permit the tinners of Devon 

 to take peat from his moor of Dartmoor for the use of the 

 stannary. 



Henry III., in 1228, granted to Adam Esturney certain lands, 

 which Roger Mirabel had held of the king in chief, in 

 Skerradon and Shapelegh, by the service of two barbed 

 arrows when the king came to hunt in his chase of Dartmoor. 

 The manor of Woodbury was held in chief of the king by 

 the service of three barbed arrows and an oat cake of the price 

 of half a farthing, when the king should come to Dartmoor for 

 hunting in his chase. The ancient tenure of the manor of 

 Druscombe also shows that royal hunting over this waste, 

 then so well stocked with deer, was anticipated, for the lord 

 had to present a bow and three arrows to the king when 

 hunting on the moor. 



In 1236, the king granted the tithe of the herbage or 

 agistment of Dartmoor to the chaplain serving the church 

 of St. Petrock at Lydford. 



In 1240, the sheriff was directed to summon a jury to deter- 

 mine, by perambulation, the bounds of Dartmoor Forest. 

 Of this perambulation there are several early copies. An 

 ancient quaint map of the forest, of which a photograph is 

 given by Mr. Brooking Rowe, is extant that has generally 

 been supposed to be coeval with this perambulation, but it 

 is probably two centuries later in date. 



An entry on the Close Rolls, dated 23rd January, 1251, shows 

 that the very rare privilege of having a justice in eyre for 



