95 



OLD ENGLISH FORESTS.* 



Ix our February number (pag-e 52) we drew attention to a 

 recently issued publication which was of particular interest 

 to northern naturalists from the information contained therein 

 relating to the birds &c. , used for food in times gone by. 

 Of a similarly informing character is the work just issued on the 

 Royal Forests of England, one of 'The Antiquary's Books' 

 written by the Editor of that series, Dr. Cox. In this work Dr. 

 Cox has gathered together for the first time many valuable facts 

 relating to the old forests, the forest officers, beasts of the forest, 

 trees of the forest, &c. , and describes in detail the various forests 

 once existing in different parts of the country. The work is also 

 illustrated by numerous quaint drawings, &c. , mostly from 

 contemporary sources. 



In the first place Dr. Cox defines a forest, as it was under- 

 stood in the Norman, Plantagenet, and early Tudor days 

 It was ' a portion of territory consisting of waste lands, and 

 including a certain amount of both woodland and pasture, 

 circumscribed by defined metes and bounds, within which the 

 right of hunting was reserved exclusively to the king, and 

 which was subject to a special code of laws administered by 

 local as well as central ministers.' Had the true meaning of 

 the old word ' forest ' been grasped, much waste of learning- 

 and of vain strivings to prove that certain barren tracts were 

 wood-covered in historic times might have been spared. A 

 ' chase ' was, like a forest, unenclosed, but could be held by 

 a subject. 



The foresters and other officials appointed in connection with 

 these vast tracts of country are described, and particulars given 

 of their duties, wag-es &c. We learn that twopence a day was 

 the usual wages of the Pickering foresters. 



Under ' The Beasts of the Forest ' are many particulars of 

 animals formerly existing, which should be studied by all in- 

 terested in the former fauna of Britain. Particularly interesting 

 are the records relating to the wolf. ' The abundance of wolves 

 throughout England in the pre-Norman days is borne witness 

 to by the Saxon name for January, namel}', the wolf-month. 

 There was probably no part of England where the wolves 

 had surer or more prolonged retreats than amid the wilds of 



* 'The Royal Forests of Eng-land,' By Charles Cox, LL.D., F.S.A. 

 Methuen & Co., 372 pp, 7/6. 



1906 March i. 



