44 OUR FORESTS AND WOODLANDS 



in his beat ; he had also to attend each Justice 

 Seat, and, if called, had to present his hatchet 

 to the Justice in Eyre. If a subject had any 

 wood in a forest and his Woodward neglected 

 to appear at the Justice Seat, the wood could 

 be seized for the king till the owner paid a 

 fine ; and it was a finable offence if the owner 

 of woods within a royal forest appointed a Wood- 

 ward to look after them where there had been 

 no such office before. 



During the time of Edward I. several im- 

 portant statutes and ordinances were passed 

 dealing with forest law. Apparently the roll 

 of offences in forests, chases, and warrens had 

 grown to be very heavy, for in 1275 legisla- 

 tion took place against Trespassers in Parks 

 and Ponds, and in 1278 the Assiza et Comuetu- 

 dines Forests were promulgated, prescribing more 

 clearly than previously the action to be taken and 

 the penalties to be incurred for certain offences 

 committed within the forests. It affirmed that 

 ' all trees/ whether fruit-bearing or not, * and an 

 ash if it be old/ were vert, and therefore possessed 

 by the king, while it was made penal to fell 

 an oak even within the demesne wood if within 



