ITS HISTORY.
then the owner of the dogg shal be gilty of the
greatest offence. ..."
These laws were put in force by Forest Courts
maintained for the purpose of resisting encroach-
ments, and protecting the deer and the vert.
These were the Court of Attachment,1 or forty-day
court, presided over by four verderers, who were
chosen by the freeholders of the county, hearing
cases against offenders, in the first instance, and
dealing at once with offences when the damage
was not more than fourpence; the Court of
Swainmote, also presided over by the verderers,
but assisted by a jury of freeholders in the Forest,2
who tried offenders, but if found guilty, sentence
was reserved for the highest court, or Justice scat,
held at much longer intervals, and presided over
by the Chief Justice in Eyre. In addition all
general questions of right were tried by a jury of
freeholders before the same authority, which from
time to time issued orders for the regulation of
the Forest. The following quotations of orders
from the Court Rolls as recently as the beginning
of the last century are fair illustrations of the
working of these courts :—
1 Some speak also of a Cheyne Court for the expeditation
of dogs.
2 In the Stowe Collection, recently acquired by the British
Museum, there is the transcript of a charge delivered to the
jury and officers constituting the Swainmote Court in 1634,
and the Court seems to have been presided over on that
occasion by one of the judges. It is probable that he was a
creature of Charles I., and that this unusual step was taken to
enable him to allay the rising irritation, felt at that time against
the Forest laws, and the strained interpretation which Charles
sought to place upon them. A large part of the charge is
occupied by an elaborate vindication of the king's rights.