82 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY. 



the end of the eighth century, latinized into 

 "foresta," or "forestis," it assumed a more re- 

 stricted meaning, namely, as referring to all the 

 royal woods, in which the right to hunt was re- 

 served by the king, either for himself or for those 

 of his vassals to whom he ceded the right to the 

 chase. (See Appendix.) Gradually, however, the 

 kings employed their royal prerogative of forbid- 

 ding any kind of action, under threat of the " ban," 

 in extending their exclusive right to the chase, not 

 only to neighboring woods, but to fields as well. 



By and by the temporal and spiritual princes 

 and feudal lords succeeded in having their own 

 holdings protected in the same manner, and de- 

 clared as "ban forests," as far as the hunting was 

 concerned, and by the thirteenth century this pre- 

 rogative was freely exercised by noble landholders. 

 Under the plea of protecting the chase, the rights 

 to cut wood (which had been free to all), to clear 

 for agricultural use, and to pasture, were gradually 

 restricted, and these restrictions, which had referred 

 at first only to the property of the lords, were soon 

 extended to apply also to the property of others 

 which lay within the " ban," so that at the end of 

 the ninth century a " forest " meant a large tract 

 of land, including woods as well as pastures, fields, 

 and whole villages, on which not only the rights to 

 the chase were reserved to the king or his vassals, 

 but the persons living on it in all their relations 

 fell under the special jurisdiction, of the " forest 



