FORESTRY 



and ten working fletchers earning 3^. a day to the Forest of Dean to stay there till they had made a 

 great number of darts (pilarum) which when manufactured were to be sent to the king at 

 Berwick-on-Tweed. 



One episode in the history of the forest during the reign of Edward III must be briefly noticed 

 before we pass on to the later history. In 1340 Guy Brian, 1 constable of St. Briavel's and keeper of 

 the Forest of Dean, complained that whereas the king had lately appointed him to his office at 

 the rent of ^160 at the Exchequer, the entire issues thereof were not estimated at more than 

 84 131. ^d. t and that as he could not meet the exorbitant rent without unduly wasting the forest 

 he prayed for inquiry and relief. On the receipt of this petition Gilbert Talbot * and John Gogh 

 were appointed to make an inquisition into the circumstances, and in their report state that the value 

 of all manner of profits pertaining to the castle and forest reached 117 4*. S\d. They point out 

 that in the time of Robert Walram (? Walerand) farmer of the forest who first fixed the assessment 

 at 160 and some of his successors, some great forges with other smaller forges of the king in the 

 forest were put down to avoid destruction of the vert. These had rendered 26 igs. -$d. to the 

 farmer. Other causes contributory to the reduction of income were to be found in the late 

 disafforestation of large tracts, amounting under Edward II to one fourth of the forest, and to the 

 alienation by various kings of fisheries, weirs and lands granted by charter. In consequence the 

 render at the Exchequer was graciously reduced to i2O, 3 and as this was still ridiculously high a 

 further allowance of 30 out of the farm of 120 was permitted in 1349 'on account of the 

 present pestilence and divers other causes.' 4 



In 1390 the Parliament of the realm* ratified a grant by the king to his 'very dear uncle,' 

 Thomas duke of Gloucester, of the castle of St. Briavel, and the Forest of Dean, ' as a forest ' in 

 tail male. On his death the forest seems to have been held for a few years by John of Gloucester,* 

 a natural son of the king, but late in I399 7 it was granted to John the second son of Henry IV, then 

 a lad ten years old, later to be better known as the great Duke of Bedford. In 1429, when the 

 Duke of Bedford still held the forest, the bailiffs and burgesses of Tewkesbury petitioned Parlia- 

 ment and complained bitterly of the lawless interference of men of the forest with the vessels 

 and trows which trafficked between Tewkesbury and Bristol, and moreover that they could 

 obtain no redress for the despoiling of their goods ' in as muche as the saide Forest and Hundredes 

 been large cuntrees, and wylde of peple and negh adjoynaunt to Wales and allc the Commones of 

 oon affinite in malice and riot.'* For the next hundred years the history of the forest is mainly 

 composed of details as to the appointments of various officers and the accounts of their adminis- 

 tration, and these must be omitted here. At the Reformation the large interests of Flaxley and 

 other religious houses within the Forest of Dean passed to lay hands, Flaxley itself being granted 

 to the Kingstons, whose descendants in the seventeenth century sold it to the Boeves.* 



Although no eyre had been held for more than two centuries previous to the reign of Elizabeth, 

 the lesser courts of attachment or wood-motes still existed, and some attention was paid to the 

 condition of the vert in the interests of local officials and farmers of forest rights. At a court 10 

 at Kennysley (Kensley) in 1568 we find presentations not only for hunting, with long bows and 

 ' arrows with forked heads,' but also for a series of offences against the vert, to wit bill-hewing, 

 the collection of 'okecornes,' 'beatyng chestnutts,' cutting great branches called 'le Great Lymes,' 

 for cutting 'Tower bowys,' rooting up hollies, hawthorns and hazels, stubbing ' crabbe stockes,' 

 cutting ' Tynnett,' u for ' yardyng," ' bestyng,' ' barkyng,' ' rodyng,' ' browsyng,' for an axe 

 (frequently), and other forms of waste. 



In the sixteenth century general concern was aroused by the rapid destruction of the woods in 

 many parts of the kingdom, this waste having been encouraged in no slight degree by the transfer 

 of the woods of the religious houses to private hands, when in too many cases they were promptly 

 cleared of timber. An attempt was made to check this devastation and promote recovery by 

 judicious restrictions and enclosures under the Statute of Woods 13 of 1543, which was reaffirmed 

 and strengthened by an Act of 15 70." Other Acts as well of the reign of Elizabeth show that 

 the preservation of the woodlands was being generally recognized as a matter of national and not 

 merely local interest. 



There was a tradition M current in the early seventeenth century that the admiral of the 

 Armada had special instructions should he effect a landing to destroy the Forest of Dean and thus 



1 See writ to the Exch. enrolled ; Close, 1 1 Edw. Ill, pt. i, m. 33. 



' Pat. 14 Edw. Ill, pt. i, m. 14 d. ' Pat. 15 Edw. Ill, pt. i, m. 9. 



4 Cat. Pat. Edw. Ill, 1348-50, p. 4*8. * Parl. R. iii, 278*; cf. Stat. 8 Hen. VI, cap. 27. 



Nicholls, Perionalities of the Forest of Dean, 23. ' Cal. Pat. Hen. iy, 1399-1401, p. 159. 



I Parl. R. iv, 345. * Later spelt Bovey and Boevey. " Forest Proc. Exch. K. R. ^ (P.R.O). 

 " ' Tynnett ' is brushwood of thorn used for repairing fences. 



II 35 Hen. VIII, cap. 17. "13 Eliz. rap. 25. 



14 Evelyn, Silva (1776), 564, and compare another version in S. Hartlib, Hit Legatit (2 ed. 1652), 84, 

 'The Spaniard snt an ambassador purposely to get this wood destroyed.' 



271 



