ANCIENT AND MODERN FORESTRY 31 



it could not of itself proceed to direct judgment. 

 And hence, too, execution of any judgment had 

 to be stayed till the conviction was approved and 

 ratified by the Chief Justice in Eyre. 



The charter also directed that one of the three 

 annual courts of Swainmote should be kept fifteen 

 days before the feast of St. John or midsummer, 

 so that the verderers, foresters, and agistors 

 might make provision for the deer during the 

 fawning time or Fence Month (Tempus Vetituni}, 

 when every man was forbidden to wander up and 

 down in the forest or otherwise disturb the wild 

 beasts. 



Before the Forest Charter all men within the 

 county, no matter what their degree, were bound 

 to appear at the Justice Seat upon a general 

 summons being issued, but that vexatious trouble 

 was afterwards remedied by this great court being 

 held only once every third year under the presi- 

 dency of the Chief Justice in Eyre, assisted by 

 some person learned in the laws of the forest. 

 Here the rolls of offences submitted by the 

 Courts of Attachments and Swainmote ', sealed 

 by the verderers, were presented to the Chief 

 Justice in Eyre, as the lower courts could not 



