Malvern chasS. '75 



of the forests described. The details given are deemed 

 sufficient to give a general idea of the forests, or royal 

 hunting grounds of England ; and this is all which it is 

 sought to do here. 



Section II. — Chases. 



In regard to forests, we have found it stated that, while a 

 forest cannot be held by any but a Sovereign, a grant of 

 one may, by a prescribed procedure, be made to a subject ; 

 but it, by this act, ceases to be a forest, and it is then 

 designated a Chase, and it is not required that it should 

 be kept surrounded by an enclosure. Chases and forests, 

 however, have much besides in common. They are less 

 frequently heard of than are forests, from the circumstance 

 that they are private and not public possessions ; but yet 

 the designation chase comes up from time to time, more 

 frequently perhaps in works of fiction than in works of 

 history. Amongst these are Malvern Chase, Cannock 

 Chase, and Hatfield Chase. 



A. — Malvern Chase. 



In Malvern Chase we have a case of what was once a 

 forest, in the legal and technical sense of the term, as this 

 has been explained, being made a chase, by its being dis- 

 afforested by Charles I. in A.D. 1632. 



An interesting account of this Forest and Chase was 

 published in 1877 by Mr Edwin Lees, F.L.S., F.G.S., Vice- 

 President of the Malvern and Worcestershire Field Club ; 

 and an abridgement of this appeared in the Journal of 

 Forestry (vol. v., pp. 537-554, 617-631). From this I 

 cite the following details : — 



" It is scarcely possible to form an adequate idea of the 

 appearance of the Forest of Malvern in the early times 

 prior to the Norman Conquest, but at that period the 

 monkish chronicler, William of Malmesbury, mentions it 



