168 THE DOMESDAY INQUEST 



thegns ; l and in Berkshire the man who was summoned 

 to make the deer-hay ("ad stabilationem venationis") and 

 made default, paid 50^. to the King. 2 Wild honey was often 

 found in the woods, and was duly accounted for ; from the 

 large wood at Eling, previously referred to, 3 sextars of 

 honey were given to the lord. 3 From his wood at Malvern 

 the Bishop of Worcester had, T. R. E., hunting and honey, 

 and whatever thence issued, and also ictf. 4 When woodland 

 was broken up for cultivation it was called "assarts:" 58 

 acres of " essarz " are recorded at Marcle ; 5 and the " assarts " 

 at Leominster yielded i?s. ^d. Q 



The mention of the Bishop of Worcester's rights of hunt- 

 ing in the wood at Malvern reminds us that at the time of 

 Domesday Book a large part of England was " forest "-land 

 that is, land outside (foris) the common law, and subject to 

 a special law, of which the object was to preserve the hunting 

 on these tracts for the King and his favourites. But it is 

 only incidentally that Domesday Book mentions these forests, 

 and the only forests of which it gives any particulars are the 

 Oxfordshire forests of Stowood, Shotover, Wychwood, and 

 Woodstock, which were stated to be 9 leagues (13^ miles) 

 long, and the same in breadth. "To these forests pertained 

 4j hides ; and 6 villans with 8 bordars have 3^ teams ; 

 from them and the pertinences of the forests, Rainald renders 

 ;io per annum to the King." 7 From the Herefordshire 

 forests, which were held by William fitz Norman, the King 

 received i$. 8 The lands about the New Forest have a 

 special section of the Hampshire Domesday to themselves, 

 and show that, as at Eling, the King evicted a number of 

 agriculturalists to make room for those tall stags which he 

 loved " as though he was their father ; " but his usual method 

 of enlarging the forest was by confiscating from their owners 



1 D.B., I. 269 b 2. 2 Id., I. 56 b i. 3 Id., I. 36 b 2. 

 4 Id., I. 173 a 2. 5 Id., I. 179 b 2. 6 Id., 180 a i. 

 7 /</., I. 154 b 2. 8 Id., I. 181 a i. 





