ANCIENT AND MODERN FORESTRY 45 
the Regard of the forest. One section shows 
that certain persons could ‘claim to have privi- 
leges, as dogs unlamed and greyhounds, within 
the bounds of the forest,’ but the only specific 
authority given was that ‘It is lawful for the 
Abbot of the borough of St. Peter to hunt, 
and to take hares, foxes, and martens, within 
the bounds of the Forest, and to have unlamed 
dogs, because he hath sufficient warrant there- 
unto.” Edward seems, however, to have been a 
sufficiently-enlightened monarch to have learned 
in time that the forest laws were oppressive and 
vexatious both to the nobles and to the smaller 
landowners, as well as to the rural population 
generally. Hence, when they clamoured for 
perambulations and fixation of the true boun- 
daries of the royal forests, Edward found it 
politic to accede to their request. And he was 
by no means loath to earn an honest penny by 
sale of clemency in this respect; so, in 1299, 
when anxious to raise money for prosecuting 
his war in France, he gave formal confirmation 
of Magna Charta and the great Charta de Foresta 
of 1225. In doing this he contrived to slip in 
a little phrase, ‘without prejudice to the right 
