JULY 153 



protection against such an infringement of private right 

 disappears. 



Not only has the Scottish law of trespass always been 

 more indulgent than that in other countries, but the 

 ancient forest laws were singularly mild in contrast to 

 the ferocious statutes of the Norman kings of England. 

 There is a statute of William the Conqueror (it exists in 

 manuscript, I believe, at Savernake) under which any 

 man taken in the king's forest is condemned to choose 

 between three penalties — to have his eyes put out, to be 

 emasculated, or to be put to death. Compared with this, 

 the Scottish statute of William the Lion (1165-1214) reads 

 like clemency itself: — 



' Grif anie stranger be found within anie forbiddin place of the 

 forest, & wil sweir vpon his wapons that he knew nocht that 

 way to haue bene forblddin, and that he knew nocht the richt 

 way, the forestar sail convoy him to the common way, and there 

 sail suffer him to passe away without anie trouble. But gif he 

 be ane knawin man, he sail be taken and convoyed to the king's 

 castell, and there, without the ports [outside the gates] of the 

 castell, the forestar sail take before witnes his vpmaist claith [top 

 coat] ; and all quhilk is in his purse sail perteine to the forestar ; 

 and his bodie sail be delivered to the Constabill or Porter, to be 

 keiped at the king's will.' 



In fact, the Scottish forest laws dealt more severely 

 with the wood-stealer than the poacher — ne quis secet aut 

 venetvA- — the lamentable denudation of its timber which 

 Scotland suffered after the recovery of her independence 

 being exactly what the legislature of her early kings strove 

 to avert. The wiridiera or verderers had special instruc- 

 tions for dealing with any man found ' heueand dune ane 

 aik tree ' (hewing down an oak). Note, by the way, the 

 old form of participle ' heueand.' In Scots of 1609 (the 



