80 



SavernaJce Forest. 



from the fact that the forests do not appear to have been enlarged 

 in their time, nor have we any forest-laws of that period. The 

 earliest code of forest-law handed down to us, comes under the 

 name of Canute, and very severe it was : its punishments being 

 heavy fines, flogging, and even death. 



The mighty hunters of our island, who out-Nimroded Nimrod, 

 were the Norman and Plantagenet kings. William I., Rufus, and 

 Henry I. were passionately fond of the sport. King John, who 

 could never sit still for three days together, was frequently at 

 Marlborough. He was fond of tearing about England in a chariot 

 (called in the Latin record a Biga) and four horses, many miles a- 

 day. One of his orders of a rather curious kind is extant, relating 

 to this neighbourhood, showing us to what use he applied the 

 " Vaunts 33 of your Forest. The order is dated at this town, 1 1th 

 April, 1208 : 1 being a " Command to Hugh Nevill, Governor of 

 Marlborough Castle, and Warden of the Forest : to proclaim through 

 his County that no one, as he regards his person and property, 

 should do any harm to, or speak evil of, religious men or clerks ; 

 and that if such a one should be laid hold of, he should be hanged 

 on the nearest oak [ad proximam quercum eum suspendi faciemus]." 



After this time Savernake Forest became very largely extended, 

 but what that exactly means cannot be very well understood without 

 a few remarks upon forests in general. 



As to the meaning of the word " forest 33 there is, as usual, a 

 difference of opinion. It is found in Welsh, French, and Low Latin. 

 Some say it is from "fera siatio," a place of wild animals. Others 

 from "foras" Latin for " abroad/'' out in the open. Either deriva- 

 tion suits the case. 



It is important to understand what a forest really was. We must 

 not take our ideas from any place that happens to bear the name 

 now, because the whole forest system has been completely altered. 

 A forest was not enclosed like a park : but it extended for many 

 miles, far beyond the compass of any ordinary park. This definition 

 of it is given in a curious old black-letter book, " Manwood's Forest 



1 Close Bolls of King John in " Excerpta Historica," p. 400. 



