FORESTRY 



the term ' Lancaster Great Park,' an insufficient basis, considering the loose use by mediaeval scribes 

 of terms which had by right a rigid application. However this may be, lands once presumably 

 portions of the forest are at this period found in the possession of different owners. Thus 

 we find much of Waldron woodland in other hands than those of Edward III or John of Gaunt. 

 In 1370 Michael, Lord Poynings, died seised of it; 201 in 1388 his son Richard 'on the day on 

 which he died held the manor of Waldron of the Duke of Lancaster, as of the Honor of Aquila.' 202 

 Before the Poynings the Badlesmeres had been lords of its woodlands, and had free warren there. 

 On the southern verge of the forest the Pelhams possessed lands whose names had at an earlier 

 date been associated with Ashdown Forest, and at a still earlier period we find Thomas de Audeham 

 possessed of ' the manor of Fletchinge in Ashedon forest.' 203 



Shortly after the death of Thomas Boleyn, earl of Wiltshire, keeper of Ashdown, a survey was 

 made of the forest, 204 of which a fragment is still extant. 205 According to this, 



the Forest is about by the pale 3 5 myle, it is a barren ground and hathe no covert of any underwood 

 saving great Trees and in some of the Covers birchen Trees. Itm there is no faire launde in it but 

 only hethes and they are not playne but all holies. Itm there are in it of Redde Dere ccc Whereof 

 male dere 1. Itm Falowe Dere vij or viij c whereof male dere c. 



There were six lodges for the officers, all ruinous, besides Newebridge lodge, which was lately 

 built, but unoccupied, and falling to decay. There were three foresters and three ' walkers,' each 

 receiving 45*. 6d. yearly, and each paying for the pannage of his 'walk ' 2Os. 'in a maske yere.' 



In 1539 Edmund Henslow, or Hensley, was Master of the Game in Ashdown Forest, and in 

 the Broyle of Ringmer. Subsequent holders of this post were members of the Maresfield family of 

 Kidder, and Mr. Turner considers that the office became hereditary in their family. 206 In 1540 it 

 was found that the waste of timber in Ashdown Forest and the neighbouring woodlands had become 

 so great that a commission was appointed to inquire into the matter, and to view the actual state of 

 affairs, including in their scope the destruction of game that had also taken place. From their 

 ' perambulation ' it is seen that most of the various walks and wards and lodges bore the same names 

 that survive in the district to-day : such as South, Costeley, Newbridge, and West wards, with 

 Duddleswell, Pippyngworth, Deans, Browns, and Cavells lodges. The conditions disclosed by 

 this and similar commissions for this was not the first inquiry made on the subject, and by no 

 means the last were such as to call for remedial, preventive, or restrictive measures. Waste of 

 wood and destruction of game continued, and in the reign of Mary, Edmund Hensley, still Master 

 of the Game of Ashdown, proceeded against various delinquents including some of the keepers in 

 the Duchy Court, 207 charging them, inter alia, that in ' the great waste ground called the Forest of 

 Ashdowne ' divers persons named, with others to the number of twenty, assembled about midnight 

 at Hartfield, 



having with them divers and many greyhounds, crossbows and arrows, longbows and arrows, pikes, 

 forks, bills and clubs and arrayed with coats of fenses and skulls of iron . . . then and there ... in 

 most riotous manner did chase her Majesty's deer and did Kill one Red deer and four fallow deer 

 and carried them away, and wounded and ill-treated the keepers of the said deer. 



Another band of twenty-six persons were at the same time charged with similar misdeeds committed 

 in the forest about six weeks later, on which occasion eight fallow deer were killed ; while yet 

 another company of evil-doers hunted the deer and wounded the keepers. The defendants 

 pleaded that 



the bill of complaint was untrue and insufficient in law ; that if they had offended against forest laws 

 they ought to be tried by a forest court. A swaynemote should be called and chose 1 2 inhabitants 

 to enquire into all misdemeanours, and go through the forest and seize all spoil and waste. 



The second band of supposed evil-doers declared their assembling together as alleged was actually 

 the subsequent proceeding to a ' wood-court holden in a place called Duddles by the steward and 

 others to make enquiry,' after which, ' the defendants and others walked through the woods and 

 surveyed the waste.' 



William Bruges was one of the keepers accused, not only in the complaint of the Master of 

 the Game, but also by certain ' commissioners of the view of waste and destruction of deer, woods, 

 and underwoods,' namely, John Sackville and Edward Gage. 208 Bruges replied that he was keeper 



101 Inq. p.m. 43 Edw. Ill, pt. 2, No. 17. "' Ibid. 1 1 Ric. II, No. 43. w3 Ibid. 4 Edw. I, No. 45. 



** L. and P. Hen. Vlll, xiv (2), 29. m For. Proc. (T.R.), 197. 



m6 Suss. Arch. Coll. xiv, 47. *" Duchy of Lane. Dep. vol. 69, H. 2. 



108 Duchy of Lane. Plead, xxxviii, R. 7. The Sackvilles, ancestors of the Dorset family, had been seated 

 in the forest-land for centuries. Jordan de Sackville, in the beginning of Edward I's reign, held in the manor 

 of Buckhurst, in Ashdown Forest, 'a certain park of which the pasture was poor, and its pannage, together 

 with that of the outside woods, only worth z/,' and the pannage in his park of Newenham was only worth 8</., 

 because it was close to Ashdown Forest, and the bailiffs would not allow any effectual impounding to be done. 

 Inq. p.m. 3 Edw. I. 



317 



