MALVERN CHASE. 79 



^ found within the said Chase/ might have had but scant 

 justice allotted to him, and his head be placed in unpleasant 

 proximity to the forester's axe. 



" The lord of the lordship of Hanley was the chief lord 

 of this Chase, and of all the royalties of it, and appointed 

 the constable of the Castle of Hanley, the parker of 

 Blackmore, the steward, the baliff, the master of the game, 

 four foresters, and a ranger, to hold once in the year a lord 

 day and a court baron ; and every three weeks to deter- 

 mine all manner of pleas and trespasses, debts, or detainer, 

 which exceeded not the value of forty shillings. To this 

 court, besides the homage and customary tenants thereof, 

 were ' free suitors,' the Abbot of Westminster, the Abbot 

 of Pershore, the Prior of Much Malverne, the Prior of 

 Little Malverne, the Lord Clifford for the lordship of 

 Stoke-upon-Severn, the Lord of Madresfyeld, the Lord of 

 Bromsberrow, and the Lord of Byrtes -Morton. 



" Attached to the Chase were also certain verderers, 

 viewers, and riders, which by their tenure and holding of 

 land had power to ride and perambulate the ground, soil, 

 and townships of every lord, from Charmey's Pool upon 

 the southjunto Powyke Bridge and Braunceford Bridge, to 

 oversee the highways and watercourses, and to take care 

 that^the wood|hedges adjoining to the Chase be lawfully 

 made for the preservation of the deer. The viewers and 

 riders were also to look to ' the hombling of the dogs,' and 

 to have the oversight and correction thereof twice every 

 seven years, and such manner of dogs as were found un- 

 lawful, that is to say, as could not be drawn through a 

 certain sterop of eighteen inches and a barleycorn in length 

 and breath compass, the farther joints of the two middle 

 claws were to be cut clean away, and the master and owner 

 of the dogs were to be amerced 3s. Id. 



" The chief forester, who was generally a gentleman of 

 position, had various fees assigned to him, as ' crops of all 

 the oaks,' any excess of ' the mast ' in autumn beyond 

 what was required for the commoners' pigs, the ' windfall 

 wood,' the ' 3d penny of attachments made in the Chase,' 



