38 OUR FORESTS AND WOODLANDS 



there having been many illegal pickings to be made 

 indirectly out of the appointment. But, apart 

 from that, it was an office of high degree, usually 

 held by great noblemen. Some held office for 

 life, others only during the royal pleasure. Their 

 duties were to preserve and watch over the vert 

 and venison, and to attach offenders and present 

 them before the forest courts. They could give 

 no license to any one to hunt or hawk, nor could 

 they, except under lawful warrant, themselves 

 kill a deer in the forest without risking forfeiture 

 of office. Every forester was bound to appear at 

 the Justice Seat, and when he was called he had 

 to present his horn upon his knees to the Justice 

 in Eyre, who handed it to the marshal, and a 

 fee of 6s. 8d. had to be paid before the horn 

 was returned to its owner. A woman might 

 be a forester, the husband acting for her as 

 forester -in -fee. If he found any man in the 

 forest with greyhound or bow and arrows intend- 

 ing to hunt, the forester could arrest and im- 

 prison him, and he might pursue him within view 

 out of the forest. It was doubtless profitable to 

 give any one encountered in the forest the benefit 

 of the doubt ; for, before the Charta de Foresta, 



