FORESTRY 



Henry II., and so held through his reign and those of Richard, John, and Henry III. The 

 wood was well furnished with very beautiful oaks and underwood. 1 



Full lists of assarts and purprestures that had occurred since 1251, under the respective 

 bailiffs, were also presented at the 1286 pleas. 



As to horses, it was presented that the Queen Consort had a stud of 1 1 5 mares and 

 their foals in Campana to the great injury of the forest, but that several others had horses 

 and mares in Campana under cover of their belonging to the queen. 



The accounts of Gilbert de Yoxhall, bailiff of the Peak, for 131415 give full particulars, 

 supplied by William, son of Matilda and William del Grene, the herdsmen (instauratores de 

 Pecco). As to the farmstock, etc., 5 14*. was realised by the sale of 3 oxen, a bull and 6 cows ; 

 16 is. $d. for 41 wethers, 58 sheep with their fleeces, and 180 shorn wethers; 46*. 6d. for 

 milk of 17 cows and of 4 cows with calves ; 56*. $d. for the skins and horns of 2 oxen, 9 cows, 

 9 heifers, and 18 steers that died of the murrain ; 11 Os. id. for 470 skins of sheep with 

 fleeces, 93 sheepskins, and 1,077 lambskins, together with the flesh of certain sheep (bidentes) 

 that died in the summer; I2f. for 1 8 stone of locket wool ; ,6 175.4^. for the milk of 424 

 sheep ; and 495. for 34 quarters of oats. 



Among the expenses were 1 6d. in food and wages for a shepherd who had charge of 

 the rams; 275. 10^. in food and wages for eight servants (pagettorum) at lambing time for 

 13 weeks; 52*. 8^d. for rebuilding a sheepfold at Harlegh and surrounding it with a stone 

 wall ; and 37*. 6d. for repairing other sheepfolds. There were further expenses relative 

 to sheep-shearing, and the collecting of wool (i6d. being paid for the gathering of locks of 

 wool out of the water), castrating, hemp for wicks for the candles required at lambing 

 time, and other items. 



There are various references to the milking of ewes in the Peak accounts. It is often 

 forgotten how almost universal throughout England but more especially in Essex and the 

 eastern counties was the custom of cheese-making from sheep's milk from the time of 

 Domesday to the days of Elizabeth. 8 It lingered to a far later date in some districts. 

 The milk of ten ewes was considered equivalent to that of one cow. The bailiff of the 

 Peak was allowed within the forest limits to keep a limited number of sheep in certain 

 defined places, and one or two herds of cattle kept as a rule within enclosures, and only 

 occasionally pastured in the open. In later days, as will be presently seen, when the pas- 

 turage was farmed out, it became a great temptation to the farmers to increase their stocks to 

 the serious detriment of the deer. Temporary booths or sheds were erected on the great 

 pasture grounds of the forest for the occasional use of the herdsmen of the vaccaries. Particu- 

 larly was this the case about Edale. This is the explanation of the term ' Booth ' not 

 infrequently found on the Ordinance Survey maps. Near Edale may be noticed Booth, 

 Barber's Booth, and Upper Booth ; above Hollinsclough is another Booth ; and else- 

 where occur Grindsbrook Booth, Otterbrook Booth, and Netherbrook Booth. Contrari- 

 wise, Oxhey and Cowhey on Ronksley Moor, Cowheys near Ludworth, and Oxhey near 

 Eyam, speak of definite enclosures for cattle. 



A mandate of the crown in the next reign shows that the appointment of verderers was then 

 proceeding in the ordinary way. The sheriff of Derbyshire was instructed in October, 1331, 

 to cause verderers to be elected in the place of William de Grattan and Robert le Ragged, who 

 were both deceased. 8 



In the registers of John duke of Lancaster are to be found entries of appointments in 

 the forest, beginning with the first year in which the Peak became annexed to the Duchy. 4 



The Ministers Accounts of the Duchy of Lancaster, from the reign of Richard II. 

 onwards, supply various interesting particulars as to receipts and expenditure in administering 

 the affairs of the forest and bailiwick of the High Peak. The accounts for 13912, when 

 Thomas de Wednesley was receiver and bailiff, supply the following as the chief receipts : 

 132 5*. iof^. in rents from the towns of Litton and Wardlow, and from the wastes of 

 Brad well, Ollerset, Chapel-en-le-Frith, etc. ; 6 IDS. Sd. for winter herbage at Edale, 

 Castleton, Thornhill, Hope, etc.; 64 ijs. ifd. for summer herbage at Fairfield, Wormhill, 

 Maynstonfield, Tideswell, Wheston, Edale, Coombs, etc.; 10 135. from the mills of 

 Castleton, Maynstonfield, Tunstead, Hayfield, Chisworth, and Beard, with their fisheries j 



1 ' Et boscus ills vestitus fuit pulcherrimo querceto et husseto.' 



2 V. C. H. Essex, i. 368-373. 



8 Close, 5 Edw. III. pt. i. m. 5. 



* Duchy of Lane. Misc. Bks. Nos. 13 and 14. Lack of space forbids citations. 



407 



