24 OUR FORESTS AND WOODLANDS 



forester were present, to show that theft was not 

 being committed. It removed many of the fla- 

 grant abuses under which the people had suffered 

 so heavily throughout the whole of the hundred 

 and fifty years of Norman rule. Since the early 

 days of Henry II. the forest administration had 

 occupied a definite and important position side by 

 side with the common law. This charter was to 

 the forest administration very much what Magna 

 Charta was to the constitution at large. In both 

 cases rights were defined and liberties assured, 

 thus making the future happier and more secure 

 than the past had been. 



In the following year (1218) a perambulation 

 or Pourallee of the royal forests was made to de- 

 termine once and for ever their true extent and 

 boundaries ; and the lands thus disafforested were 

 classed as Purlieu. These were * clear places * or 

 tracts adjoining the forest, and once forming part 

 of it, which were bounded by immovable marks 

 noted on the record of the perambulation. In 

 that same year an ordinance was made restricting 

 the king from making any grants of woodland in 

 perpetuity till he came of age in 1227. When 

 he did come of age, it may be remarked, as illus- 



