ITS HISTORY 5
icle says that " he loved the Great Game as if he
had been their Father." Being besides men of
arbitrary will, and very great political power, they
increased the stringency of the previously existing
Forest laws. They assigned as Royal Forests
many wooded districts in various parts of the
country, and enlarged the boundaries of others.
It must not, however, be supposed that they were
then for the first time turned into "waste" land.
According to Lord Coke the great majority of
them had from immemorial antiquity been forests,
as we understand the word, but not necessarily
subject to Forest laws. The Royal Forests have
been defined as " certain territories of woody
grounds and fruitful pastures, privileged for wild
beasts and fowls of forest chase and warren, to
rest and abide there in safe protection of the king
for his delight and pleasure." They were not
enclosed, but were " meered and bounded with
unremoveable marks, meers and boundaries," that
is, natural landmarks such as hills, rivers, and
trees, and boundary stones, some of which have
been sought out and discovered in recent years.
One old writer, enlarging on the use of the
Forests, says they " are for the profit and strength
of the kingdom, for the forests are the ships'
nurseries of timber . . . likewise of the king's
ships, which chase from robbing of it the wasps
and hornets, I mean the pirates and the greater
enemies"; but he lays most stress on the fact
that they are the "chief object of the king's
princely delight." And he especially commends
Waltham and Windsor Forests on account of their
convenience for the " entertainment of foreign
princes and of their agents and ambassadors,
because the nearness of these two forests unto the
city doth much add to the pleasure of them."
Although in some cases, such as the New
Forest, cultivated lands were laid waste to gratify
the royal pleasure, villages and enclosures were
often allowed to exist within the limits ; but it
is important to observe that they and their in-
habitants were subject to the full stringency of the