OUR BEAUTIFUL FORESTS 
III 
kill a deer he was punished more terribly than we punish 
our worst crimnals, he was tortured or put to death. 
Because it was the king’s pleasure to hunt in the forest 
he would not spare even one stag for the poor man’s 
food. The peasant could not so much as gather brush¬ 
wood for his fire, much less cut down a tree; he could 
let his cows graze on the land, but not sheep or geese or 
swine, and if his cows nibbled enough to deprive the 
king’s beasts of food, the poor man’s cattle were taken 
from him. 
There were plenty of officers to enforce these cruel 
laws; there were foresters and gamekeepers, rangers, 
woodwards, regarders and verderers. Every forty days 
the verderers held court; the peasants were tried and 
thrown into prison until the grand Court of Justice 
should meet, which it did every three years. It was a 
lucky poacher who escaped with two ears from before 
those cruel judges. 
And then came Robin Hood, outlawed Earl of Hunt¬ 
ingdon, to roam the forest with his brave band, right¬ 
ing the wrongs of the oppressed, robbing the rich to 
give to the poor. Do you remember the story of Will 
Scarlet, one of Robin’s men, how he saved a poor 
widow’s boy from the gallows, how in so doing he was 
caught himself by the Sheriff of Nottingham, and how 
Robin’s men in turn saved Will? 
