38 OUR FORESTS AND WOODLANDS 
there having been many illegal pickings to be made 
indirectly out of the appointment. But, apart 
from that, it was an office of high degree, usually 
held by great noblemen. Some held office for 
life, others only during the royal pleasure. Their 
duties were to preserve and watch over the vert 
and venison, and to attach offenders and present 
them before the forest courts. They could give 
no license to any one to hunt or hawk, nor could 
they, except under lawful warrant, themselves 
kill a deer in the forest without risking forfeiture 
of office. Every forester was bound to appear at 
the Justice Seat, and when he was called he had 
to present his horn upon his knees to the Justice 
in Eyre, who handed it to the marshal, and a 
fee of 6s. 8d. had to be paid before the horn 
was returned to its owner. A woman might 
be a forester, the husband acting for her as 
forester-in-fee. If he found any man in the 
forest with greyhound or bow and arrows intend- 
ing to hunt, the forester could arrest and im- 
prison him, and he might pursue him within view 
out of the forest. It was doubtless profitable to 
give any one encountered in the forest the benefit 
of the doubt; for, before the Charta de Foresta, 
