OF THE FOREST LAWS. 259 



By winch it appears, how the purlieus, or pourallees, had 

 their first beginning ; for, all sueh woods and lands as were affor- 

 sted by Henry II. Richard Lor king John, and by perambu- 

 lations severed from the ancient forests, were, and yet are, called 

 pourallees, viz. woods and lands severed from the old forests, 

 and disafforested by perambulation ; pourallee, in French, being 

 the same as perambulation in Latin. 



But, notwithstanding, such new afforestations were disaffor- 

 ested by perambulation, whereby the same became pourallee, or 

 purlieu ; yet they were not thereby so disafforested as to every 

 man, but that they do, in some sense, continue forest still, as to 

 some persons, though disafforested, in some sort, as to others. 

 For by the words, Charta de Foresta, if the king had afforested 

 any woods or lands of his subjects, to the damage of them whose 

 they were, they should be forthwith disafforested again ; that is, 

 only as to those persons whose woods and lands they were, who, 

 as the proper owners thereof, might fell and cut down the woods 

 at their own pleasure, without any license from the king, as 

 also convert their meadows and pastures into tillage, or other- 

 wise improve their grounds to the best advantage. In like 

 manner, they might hunt and chase the wild beasts of the forest 

 towards the same, so that they do not forestal the same in their 

 return ihither; but yet no other person could claim such bene- 

 fit in the pourallee, but only the proper owner of the soil there- 

 of; so that the same remains forest still, as to those who have 

 no property in the lands therein : for the owners of the woods 

 and lands therein may suffer the pourallee to remain forest still, 

 if they be so minded, notwithstanding such disafforestation) as 

 appears by the statute of S3 Edward I. cap. 5.) as some have 

 thought it most expedient for them, because thereby they had 

 the ^benefit of common within the forest, which otherwise, 

 by having their lands severed from the forest, by way of pour- 

 allee, they were excluded from : which doth prove, that the 



