Читать книгу A Book of Britain: The Lore, Landscape and Heritage of a Treasured Countryside - Johnny Scott - Страница 43

The Court of Attachment, the primary court of the forest, was held at intervals of forty days and was known as the Forty Days’ Court. The object of this court was to receive the attachments or felons apprehended by the foresters and woodwards, and to enter them on the rolls of the verderers. The usual proceeding appears to have been that if the foresters found any man trespassing on the vert of the forest they might attach him by his body, and then cause him to find two pledges to appear at the next Court of Attachments. Upon his appearance at this court, he was mainprized or bailed until the next General Sessions or Iter of the Forest Justices. If he was found offending a second time, he had to find four pledges; if a third time, eight pledges; and if found offending a fourth time, he was detained in custody without bail or mainprize until the coming of the Justices. If a man was taken killing a deer or carrying it away, which was called being ‘taken with the manner’, he could be ‘attached by his body’, arrested, and imprisoned until delivered by the command of the King, the Chief Justice in Eyre of the Forest, or by the Chief Warden of the forest. However, no other officer of a lower degree than the Chief Warden could set him free or admit him to bail in these cases. The next stage in the chain was the Court of Swanimote; this was the court of the freeholders living within the forest, and was presided over by the Steward of the Forest. The judges were the elected verderers with a jury of reeves, who were bailiffs to local landowners and four men of the townships contiguous to the scene of the trespass complained of. The Swanimote convened three times a year and the officers of the forest had to be present, including the reguarders, agisters and woodwards. Sentences were not handed at the Swanimote; evidence was recorded and passed on to be presented to the Justices in Eyre of the Forest. Eyre means circuit, and the Justices were the ultimate authority in Forest Law, moving their court between the numerous Royal Forests and presided over the court of justice-seat, a triennial court held to punish offenders against the Forest Law and enquire into the state of the forest and its officers. Regardless of the frightful sentence that the Justices might eventually decide on (blinding and mutilation were not unheard of), the accused would already have spent three years in custody or have been deprived of his bail surety during that period.