ANCIENT AND MODERN FORESTRY 23 



place in the attention of the landed proprietors. 

 The old ruse of William the Conqueror in forging 

 the laws of Canute was apparently again tried in 

 the so-called laws of Edward the Confessor, pur- 

 porting to protect public as well as royal rights. 

 The first genuine Forest Charter, however, is that 

 issued in the boy king's name by the Regent, the 

 Earl of Pembroke, in November 1217. Under 

 this, as under the later charter of 1225, all 

 lands afforested by Richard I. or Henry I. 

 were declared to be disafforested, except the 

 desmesne woods of the Crown ; while the affores- 

 tations made by Henry II. were to be annulled 

 where they could be shown to be to the damage 

 of the owners of the woods. Provisions were also 

 made that no person's life or limb should in 

 future be forfeited for taking of the king's deer, 

 but that a fine should merely be exacted, failing 

 payment of which the offender should be impri- 

 soned for a year and a day. Then he was to find 

 sureties for future good behaviour, and in default 

 of this he was to be banished from England. 



Any spiritual or lay lord was, when passing 

 through a forest, free to take two beasts in view 

 of the forester, or should sound a horn, if no 



