288 



Selwood Forest. 



Further, it is stated that the ten pounds per annum paid as rent by 

 the bailiff or forester was found to have been raised only by violent 

 proceedings of sub-foresters and other petty officers seizing- poor 

 people's grain, and by other extortions : and if those practices were 

 put an end to, the office would not be worth half a mark per annum. 1 



The Barons of the Exchequer then decreed that Reginald de 

 Kingston should for the future, dating from 1326, hold the office at 

 the will of the Crown, by payment of one mark a year : and should 

 be excused all arrears, which were above £50. 



Notwithstanding the above declaration as to the places dis- 

 afforested, and therefore no longer within his jurisdiction, Reginald 

 de Kingston seems to have been either inattentive or aggressive, for 

 after his death another Inquisition by a jury of twelve " good and 

 free men" was held "concerning the state of Selwood Forest, and 

 the transgressions of Reginald de Kingston late custos." 



By this it was found " That the Manor of Deverel Lane-brio;^ 

 belonging to Glaston. Abbey was of the demesne of our Lord the 

 King : so also Knoyle Hodierne belonging to the Abbess of Wilton : 

 also Ashton Manor belonging to Romsey Abbey : also Stourton 

 Fitzpayne : the manor of Knoyle belonging to the Bishop of Winton 

 was of the Lordship of the Earl of Warwick who held mediately of 

 the King as of his demesne. Wynfeld manor belonging to Keyn- 

 sham Abbey was of the Lordship of the Earl of Gloucester who 

 held of the King. Cuvele [Keevil], a manor of the Earl of Arundell 

 was of the demesne of the King. All which manors with the 

 woods adjacent were, before the Perambulation, within Selwood 

 Forest, but since had been disafforested. " 



From an earlier Inquisition, in 56 Hen. III. (A.D. 1272), it 



1 One of the bad customs connected with the forest law was the ' ' Scot Ale," 

 "Pilson Ale," or "Outlaw's Ale": some kind of assembly for administration 

 of the law. The inferior bailiff, for the occasion, extorted money or grain, 

 lambs or young pigs, from the poor people, both within and adjoining to the 

 boundaries. They made a great brewing of beer, and then compelled the 

 people to attend, consume the article, and pay for it. The Wiltshire sub- 

 foresters are particularly named as guilty of this oppression. [Hundred Ralls, 

 vol. ii., 249, quoted in Archdeacon Hale's Domesday of St. Paul's, p. cvii.] 



