ANCIENT AND MODERN FORESTRY 21 
important and clearly-defined position side by side 
with the common law. Special justices were ap- 
pointed to accompany the circuits of the ‘ Justices 
in Eyre,’ of whom more will shortly be said. 
After the Council of Clarendon a general visitation 
of the whole country was made by two Justices in 
1166. In 1175 Henry made a personal visita- 
tion of his forests in Nottinghamshire, and even 
exacted large fines for the destruction of vert 
and venison which he had himself authorised 
during the then recent time of war. He was inevil 
temper about his forests, and just before this 
shameless demand he hanged four knights at 
Lichfield who had slain one of his foresters, no 
doubt after much oppression and provocation. 
If Richard Coeur-de-Lion had not spent most 
of his reign in crusading, history would probably 
have had much to say about a recrudescence of 
savagery in the administration of the Forest 
Laws. He loved the chase, and revived the 
older laws, though in a somewhat relaxed form ; 
but he had the merit of ordering the punishment 
of forest offences by fine only, in place of such 
barbarous mutilations as loss of eyes and cut- 
ting off of hands and feet. Even the clergy, un- 
