253 



OF HUNTING, &c. WITHIN THE FOREST. 



The king, and such persons only as have any sufficient war- 

 rant or authority by charter or grant from his majesty, or his 

 ancestors, may hunt and hawk within the forest, and no other : 

 also, all such persons as have any lawful claim allowed in eyre, 

 in respect to any grant to hunt or hawk within the forest, may 

 use the same accordingly. 



But if any knight, esquire, or gentleman doth dwell within 

 the regard of the forest, and be lord of the manor there, yet he 

 may not hunt or hawk therein, except he hath a lawful claim for 

 so doing allowed him in eyre, as aforesaid; because, by the 

 laws of the forest, no person may hunt or hawk within any part 

 of the forest that is within the regard of the forest, though it be 

 within his own fee, except he hath a sufficient warrant so to do : 

 and, therefore, they must forbear to hunt or hawk in their own 

 grounds, if they be within the regard of the forest; because it is 

 a trespass of the forest so to do, unless they have good warrant 

 for the same. 



% But by the charter of the forest, anno. 9 H. 2, cap. 1 1 , every 

 arch-bishop, bishop, earl, or baron, coming to the king by his 

 commandment, and passing through any of his majesty's forests, 

 it shall be lawful for any such prelate, or peer, to kill one or two 

 of the king's deer therein, by the view of the forester, if he be 

 present, or otherwise cause a horn to be blown for him, that he 

 may seem not to steal the king's deer. And the same they may 

 do in their return home from the king. By which it appears, that 

 those prelates and peers have, by the said charter, a lawful 

 license to hunt in the king's forests, but yet with this restriction, 



