ANCIENT AND MODERN FORESTRY 49 



during that same year, permitted 4 Every Man 

 that hath any Wood within the Forest, may 

 take House-boot and Hay-boot within his said 

 wood, without being attached for the same by 

 any Officer of the Forest, so that he do it in 

 View of the Foresters.' 



And yet a third statute of that first year of 

 reign ordained that if the Chief Warden of a 

 forest, the later development of the ancient 

 Forester, refused to bail an offender in vert or 

 venison, a writ of Chancery could be obtained 

 directing this ; and if the warden still declined to 

 bail him, another writ could be had directing the 

 sheriff to apprehend the warden himself. 



The legislation thus effected at the very com- 

 mencement of Edward III.'s reign broke the back 

 of the ancient forest laws. Though it did not 

 paralyse their force, it was the direct cause of 

 gradually weakening the hold of the crown on 

 the royal forests. In the third year of his reign 

 this king was also compelled to confirm Magna 

 Charta and the Charta de Fores fa of 1225, to 

 guarantee that future perambulations should be 

 as in the time of Edward L, and that a charter 

 should be made and given to every shire peram- 



