30 OUR FORESTS AND WOODLANDS 



by compelling their attendance or exacting fees 

 for non-attendance. But the Forest Charter also 

 regulated the jurisdiction and assembly of the 

 Swainmote by directing it to be held only three 

 times in the year on specific dates. Here offences 

 of all sorts, committed by whomsoever within the 

 limits of the forest, and not merely offences against 

 vert and venison, were to be presented and tried by 

 the jury, consisting of Swains or freeholders; and 

 here also was presented the record of the mastiffs 

 which remained * unexpeditated ' in the forest. 

 The jurisdiction of the Swainmote consisted in 

 receiving and enrolling the ' presentments v sub- 

 mitted from the Court of Attachment, in in- 

 quiring into the same, and also into charges of 

 oppression brought against the officers of the 

 forest. At first it appears to have been a sort 

 of higher Court of Inquest, preparing the cases 

 for adjudication by the Justice Seat or highest 

 forest court. Later on, from the time of 

 Edward I., power and authority were given to 

 convict and fine, provided that such conviction 

 was afterwards certified, under the seals of the 

 jury, to the Justice Seat or Court of the Chief 

 Justice in Eyre, since, not being a court of record, 



