FORESTRY 



south of ' la Loggebrok,' as well as 2O swine quit of pannage, and house-bote and hey-bote. 

 We know from other sources that the rector had also the tithes of the pasturage and pannage of 

 Maresfield park, the tithes of the forest going to the bishop of Chichester. 172 



The survey continues : ' The forest can be controlled in time of peace by one master 

 forester with his servant and eight other Serjeants and not less.' Moreover Ralph the Marshal 

 (marescalf) either in his own person or by deputy had to be one of eight Serjeants with a horse, by 

 reason of the land he held in 'Bodinggeham ' and ' Rottingeham ' ; in return he could have 12 

 oxen at ' Colbebech ' and ' Uleleye,' and a beech tree yearly for fuel, while his swine were free of 

 pannage. William de Hodlee had to be, or to supply, a forester for his lands, and Roger de 

 Dalingerigge had to serve in person as forester, receiving 3*. for his livery. John de Farnlegh was 

 required to serve as one of the eight Serjeants, but received 5*. from the king for so doing ; his 

 land was clearly that 'great serjeancy ' held by Roger de Farlegh, forester, about 1353 by service 

 of keeping the queen's chase of Ashdown, or of finding a keeper for the same with horn, 

 bow, and arrows. 173 The ranger or master-forester received qd. daily, riding foresters, of whom 

 there were two in 1283, 2d., and ordinary foresters id. ; while the parker of Maresfield had 

 ' i^d. daily. 174 There were also perquisites of office, for the parker of Maresfield and foresters 

 of Ashdown took the honey and wax made by the wild bees in the hollow trees ; 176 and 

 occasionally they abused their powers, for one of the foresters was imprisoned at Pevensey in 1395 

 for taking the tenants' cattle grazing in the forest and using them in his own plough. 176 The head 

 forester also claimed to have the windfall wood ' called cablis,' 177 Sir John St. Clare, who farmed the 

 chase of Ashdown from 1366 to 1370, complaining that the queen had appropriated all such 

 woods 'since the time of the great storm of wind' presumably the famous hurricane of I362. 178 

 This claim was probably unfounded, unless the custom was of recent growth, for in 1292 the 

 ranger accounted 179 for 211. received ' de cablicio vendito,' as well as 2s. 6d. for 'coperones' from 

 timber felled for making new pales. Ten years earlier he entered 8x. lod. for 'coperones' 

 'namely for logs felled for the pales of the forest ' and 48*. lod. for dead wood sold, 180 which in 

 1283 brought in 21 Ss. 2d. m When timber was felled at Maresfield in 1387 for repairs to the 

 weir, 41. were obtained for the ' croppes ' of the trees, and the ' chippes and loppys of the said 

 timber' were sold to carpenters. 183 As the bark was in this case sold for 31. 4^. the trees were 

 probably oaks, and several cases of oaks being cut in Maresfield Park occur, but when the nature of 

 the wood cut in the forest is mentioned it is almost always birch or beech, a hundred of the latter 

 being sold in 1285 for 25*. 183 The comparative scarcity of oaks in the poor soil of the forest seems 

 also borne out by the fact that while payments for ' the acorn pannage ' (pannagium ad glandei) are 

 common in the parkers' accounts for Maresfield, the foresters of Ashdown almost always return 

 'nothing' from this source 'because there are no acorns,' almost the only exception being in 1385 

 presumably a good year for that fruit when the ranger had 4 8j. from the West ward, jos. 

 from the South ward, and 321. from Coteresley ward for the acorn pannage. 184 The main pannage, 

 called ' Evesfold,' was derived from beech mast. 



Ashdown Forest, as might be expected, is found to have been the scene of much illegal 

 hunting and carrying away deer. Timber, too, was subject to unlawful or excessive felling, and in 

 1309, when Ashdown was still held by the queen-mother in dower, the king ordered an inquiry 

 into the waste committed by John and William Dalyngrigge in the ' chase of Asshedon ' 185 an 

 inquiry doubtless necessary, since the normal demands made upon the timber of Ashdown forest- 

 land by house and farm building, and the frequent repairs of Pevensey Castle, were sufficiently large. 

 Thus in 1288 and the succeeding two or three years extensive repairs went on at that castle, and 

 there are records 1S6 of five cart-loads of wood, ' the queen's own material,' and twelve cart-loads of 

 birch poles for scaffolding brought from Claverigge Wood in Waldron, as well as timber for the stairs. 

 Fourteen loads of scaffold poles were taken from the same wood, and fifty-six cart-loads of firewood 

 cut there and conveyed to Willingdon, while from Waldron fifty scaffold poles and fifty hurdles 

 were brought to Pevensey Castle in connexion with the same work. 



"' Mins. Accts. bdle. 441, No. 7085. 17S Assize R. 941, m. 5 d.\ ibid. 941^, m. 2 d. 



174 Exch. K.R. Accts. bdle. 136, No. 18 ; but in 1222 the master-forester only received ^d. and his 

 four subordinates \\d. a day ; Pipe R. 1 6 Hen. III. 



175 Assize R. 941, m. 7. 17 ' Mins. Accts. bdle. 441, No. 7096. 



177 At Aldingbourne the parker claimed, in 1384, to have yearly one complete tree of those cut or blown 

 down, all outgrowth of all trees cut by the bishop for timber for repairs, and all chips (guisjuilias) and other 

 waste wood thrown aside by the carpenters and workmen ; Assize R. 1423, m. 41. 



178 Mins. Accts. bdle. 1028, No. 4. " 9 Ibid. bdle. 1027, No. 21. 

 180 Ibid. " Ibid. 



182 Ibid. bdle. 441, No. 7087. I8S Exch. K.R. Accts. bdle. 136, No. 18. 



84 Mins. Accts. bdle. 441, No. 7085. 1Si Close, 2 Edw. II, m. 7. 



188 Exch. K.R. Accts. bdle. 479, No. 15, printed in Susi. Arch. Coll. xlix. 



315 



