2b0 tHE FORESTS OF ENGLAlTD. 



The following is a copy of Mr Agard's paper " On Forests," 

 treating of (1), Their etymology, or definition of name; 

 (2), Their antiquity ; (3), The laws thereunto belonging. 



" In the XXVIII. chapter of the Black Book, which was 

 written in the 23rd year of the reign of King Henry II., 

 as appeareth by the same book, a forest is defined in Latin 

 thus : Foresta est tufa ferarum mansio scilicet silvestrum, 

 non quibusUbet in locis, sed eertis, et ad hoc idoneis ; unde 

 foresta dicitur mutata E in 0, quasi ferarum static. As 

 the word statio is by Isedorus in his etymologies defined 

 a place of stay of ships for a time ; even so in like manner 

 the king's deer, being out of his forest and hunted, return 

 to their home again for rest, answering to the name of 

 Forest [for rest ?] ; for they being returned, no man ought 

 to pursue them further, 



" As for the antiquity of, forests in England, I read that 

 they were long before the Conquest, for Saint Edward, 

 returning from hunting in the Forest of Clarendon, beside 

 Sarisbury, and coming to visit his mother-in-law, was, by 

 her order, slain while he was drinking with her, to the 

 end that her son Ethelred might enjoy the kingdom ; we 

 also find that King Edward the Confessor had his forest 

 in Essex, as appeareth by his charter beginning thus : Ic 

 Edward, Konig, have given of my Forests the keeping, ^c. 



" That he had likewise a forest at Windsor appeareth by 

 Doomsday, where it is said that he changeth with the 

 Abbot of Westminster, and giveth him the manor of 

 Baltrichsey, now called Battersey, in Surrey, for the 

 Wyndsores, where his forest was. 



" But after the Conqueror entered, it appeareth by sundry 

 chronicles that he converted divers towns in Hampshire 

 to be forest, and made thereof New Forest, and constituted 

 severe laws to be kept concerning the same. 



"By these laws of the forest it seemeth that the kings of 

 this realm after the Conquest, and before King John's 

 time, had this prerogative to make or put any man's 

 manors or woods to be his forest ; for among the records 

 of the forest it is presented that King Henry I., by the 



