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OF THE PURLIEU, OR POURALLEE, 

 OF THE FOREST. 



A purlieu, or pourallee, is a circuit of ground adjoining unto 

 the forest, circumscribed with imraoveable boundaries, known 

 only by matter of record ; this compass of ground was once 

 forest, and afterwards disafforested by the perambulations made 

 for the severing the new forests from the old. This pourallee 

 began at the first after this manner, viz. when king Henry IT. 

 came first to be king of England, he took such great delight in 

 the forests of this kingdom, that (being not contented with those 

 he found here, though many and large) he began, within a few 

 years after his coming to the crown, to enlarge divers great 

 forests, and to afforest the lands of his subjects, that any way 

 were near adjoining unto those forests, and so they continued 

 during his reign. 



After whose death, king Richard I. succeeding him to the 

 throne, within some short time after his coming to the crown, 

 began to follow the example of Henry II. his father, not only 

 in the delight and pleasure he took in forests, but also in daily 

 afforesting the lands of his subjects that any way lay near to his 

 forests ; by means whereof, the enlarging of forests did daily 

 increase during his reign. 



After whose decease, king John, his brother, coming to the 

 crown, did, in like manner, soon afterwards begin, by little and 

 little, to follow the examples of his father and brother, in affor- 

 esting the lands of his subjects, that lay any way near unto his 

 forests, so that the greatest part of the lands of the kingdom was 

 become forest. And thus they continued until the seventeenth 



