FORESTS AND THE ROYAL LOVE OF HUNTING.
Source.—Richard, son of Nigel, Dialogus de Scaccario, ed. Hughes, Crump, and Johnson, p. 105.
Master. Forest procedure and the penalties or pardons of transgressors in forests, whether pecuniary or corporal, are kept apart from the other judgments of the realm and reserved for the decision of the king alone or of one of his intimate ministers specially deputed hereto. It subsists by its own laws, which are said to rest not upon the common law of the realm but on the personal will of the kings, so that anything that is done by forest-law is said to be not just absolutely, but just according to forest-law. The forests, moreover, are the kings’ sanctuaries and their highest delight, for to them they come to hunt when they lay aside the cares of state for a while, that they may be refreshed by a brief rest. There they put off at once their burdens and the inevitable turmoil of the court, and breathe for a space the blessed air of natural freedom; wherefore it follows that transgressors therein are subject only to the royal displeasure....
Disciple. ... Tell me at once what is a forest?...
M. The king’s forest is the safe abode of wild beasts, not of any species, but of woodland beasts, not in any kind of place, but in fixed and suitable places....
D. Is there a king’s forest in every county?
M. No, only in the wooded ones, which furnish the beasts with coverts and the richest feeding grounds; and it matters not who is the possessor of the woods, the king himself or the chief men of the realm, everywhere the beasts can range freely and unharmed.