have, however, some particulars of tlie king's
men, who were entrusted with the care of Charnwood
Forest, which now, like Merry Sherwood,
has lost nearly all traces of the shady groves in
which, says the tradition of the country. " a
squirrel might be hunted six miles without once
touching the ground, and when a traveller might
journey from Beaumanor to Bardon, on a clear
summer's day, without seeing the sun."

The ancient forest courts in Charnwood were
the " Justice-seat," and the " Swainmote," or
"Swanmote." The Justice-seat was presided
over by one of the Justices in Eyre, and was the
superior court of appeal. The Swainmote
assembled three times in the year. It was the
petty session of the forest, held in the open air,
and in Charnwood these places of assemblage
still may be pointed out. The court of attachment,
or woodmote, was kept every forty days.
To this the foresters brought in the attachments
"touching verdure and venison," and the
presentments thereof the verderers received and
enrolled. This court could enquire, but not
convict.

The court of regard, or survey of dogs, was
held every third year, " for expedition or lawing
of dogs." This was done by cutting off to the
skin three claws of the fore-feet, to prevent
them from running at or killing the deer. Only
mastiffs were left in possession of their claws,
because it was supposed that those only were
necessary for the defence of a man's house.
The chief officer of the royal forests was the
Lord Warden. The verderer was a judicial
officer of the forest, chosen by the freeholders
of the county by the king's writ; his office was
to keep the assize and laws of the forest, view,
receive, and enrol the attachments and presentations,
make presentments of all trespasses of
the forest of vert and venison, and to do equal
right and justice to the people. The regarders
were to make regard of the forest, and to view
and enquire of offences. Before any Justice-seat
was held, these officers had to make their
regard perambulating the whole forest.

The foresters were sworn to take presentment
of all trespasses. A forester was also
taken for the wood-ward. Every forester, when
called to a Justice-seat, knelt and presented his
horn. The wood-ward knelt and presented his axe.
An agister's office was to attend upon the king's
woods and lands, and receive and take in cattle
by agisment— that is, to pasturage within the
forest. A ranger's proper duty was to chase
the wild beasts from the outskirts of the forest
into the more central parts.

In the olden times the proper periods for
hunting the various beasts of the forest were
thus limited: that of the hart, or buck, began
at the feast of St. John the Baptist, and ended
on Holyrood-day. That of the hind and doe
began at Holyrood and ended at Candlemas.
Boar-hunting began at Christmas and ended at
Candlemas. Fox-hunting began at Christmas
and lasted till Lady-day. Hare-hunting was
from Michaelmas to Candlemas. But the king's
subjects were his game all the year round until
the people took their private rights and means
into their own custody.

One very great cause of dissatisfaction against
Charles the First was an attempt to revive ancient
forest laws fallen into desuetude. The Earl of
Holland held a court almost every year as Chief
Justice in Eyre, for the recovery of the king's
forest rights, and made great havoc upon private
property bordering the royal domains. The
Essex forests were so enlarged as to include
almost the whole county. The Earl of Southampton
was nearly ruined by a decision which
stripped him of his estate near the New Forest.
The boundaries of Rockingham Forest were
increased from six miles to sixty, and enormous
fines imposed upon the so-called trespassers:
Lord Salisbury being amerced in twenty thousand
pounds, Lord Westmoreland in a sum
almost as great, and Sir Christopher Hatton in
twelve thousand pounds. Charles the First
made Richmond Park by means of depriving
many proprietors of not only of common, but of
freehold rights. The Long Parliament, however,
when it abolished the Star Chamber, determined
for ever the extent of the royal forests, being
then in accordance with the boundaries prescribed
in the reign of James, annulling all the
perambulations and inquests by which they had
been enlarged.

Since that day it may be said that encroachments
have been made rather upon, than by the
crown. Squatters have sat down in the forests,
and, by dint of years of occupation, have secured
a kind of freehold, out of which it has been found
difficult to oust them. Others purchasing land
on the edges of the forests enlarge the boundaries
of it by various encroachments: one of the most
ingenious being the "rolling hedge" — a thick
mound; of which the earth is thrown over systematically
from the inside to the outside, and, in
no long time a circumference of encroachment
effected, considerably increasing the acreage of
the property at the expense of the crown.

Among the abolitions of our day is that of
the office of chief ranger and all that pertains
thereto. The last hereditary ranger vanished
with the disafforesting of Whichwood four or
five years ago. The woods and forests of the
crown are now under the care of a commission,
and certain rights and privileges being reserved
to the sovereign, their surplus income is paid
into the Consolidated Fund. Ten or eleven
years ago the charge of the public works and
buildings was placed under a separate commission
from that of the woods and forests, to
which it had before appertained, only the Windsor
parks being left with the forests. During
the ten years following that change, the policy
of the commissioner for England, the Hon. C. A.
Gore, has raised the gross receipts from the
crown lands, exclusive of parks and gardens, by
as much as seventy-five thousand pounds a
year, and the sum paid annually into the Consolidated
Fund has become ten per cent larger
than it was but seven years ago. The more
profitable management of the crown lands has
arisen partly by the sale, wherever full value