36 OUR FORESTS AND WOODLANDS 



use of the king till the fine was paid. Assart, 

 from Assartir, or Essarter, 'to grub up, make 

 plain/ was the offence of destroying any covert 

 by rooting it up and making it plain ground. 

 If any dweller within the forest dared to clear 

 his own freehold land of trees and shrubs for 

 agricultural or pastural purposes he was guilty 

 of Assart of the forest, and could be fined and 

 committed to prison till the fine had been paid 

 to the king. Thus a Waste merely damaged the 

 woods and coverts, while an Assart and a Pur- 

 prestre actually destroyed portions of them, and 

 they were therefore considered the more grievous 

 offences. Even barons of high degree had to 

 give heed to the position into which they some- 

 times drifted on account of waste. In the Pipe 

 Rolls whole counties were placed in default for 

 forest offences. Once on the eve of a triennial 

 Regard or survey of the royal forests the Earl 

 of Leicester procured, by special writ of the 

 king, exemption from the fines to which he 

 might be found liable for Waste; and when 

 his record was read in public at the court 'all 

 were amazed and astonished, saying, " Does not 

 this earl weaken our liberty ? " 



