ANCIENT AND MODERN FORESTRY 29 



appear to have been held irregularly by the 

 thanes in charge of the forests, but in the 

 Charter of 1217 provision was made for a Court of 

 Attachment or * Woodmote ' being held every forty 

 days for inquiry into alleged injuries to vert or 

 venison. To this forty days' court the foresters 

 brought their attachments before the verderers 

 for enrolment. Offenders caught in the act of 

 stealing vert or killing venison could be attached 

 by the body, otherwise only attachment by their 

 goods was permissible. It was simply a Court 

 of Inquest. It had no power to convict or to 

 proceed to judgment, but could merely enroll the 

 cases and commit them to the higher court, the 

 ' Swainmote.' The Swainmote was a Court of Free- 

 holders of the forest. The * Swains' or represen- 

 tative freeholders consisted of four men and a reive 

 selected from every town and village within the 

 forest. To the Swainmote all freeholders owed 

 suit and service as jurymen, while the verderers 

 were the proper judges, assisted by the steward 

 of the forest. 



Like the Woodmote, the Swainmote was origi- 

 nally held at irregular times by the chief wardens 

 and foresters, who oppressed the people greatly 



