Chapter XVI: Sherwood Forest

The old ballads of Robin Hood, which were popular rhymes as early as the middle of the fourteenth century, as we know from the _Vision of Piers Ploughman_, have probably been the chief cause of the undying fame of Sherwood Forest. But these pages have to deal with historic facts, and not with traditions, however substantial may be their basis. The fascinating subject of outlaw life under the greenwood tree of this celebrated forest must, therefore, be passed by; those who desire to know all that can be known of Robin Hood and his ballads had better consult the five scholarly volumes of Mr. F. J. Child, of Boston, Mass., published in 1882, entitled _English and Scottish Popular Ballads_. The delightful modern ballads of the Rev. R. H. Whitworth, who has for forty years resided, as vicar of Blidworth, in the very centre of ancient Sherwood, are saturated with the true forest spirit, and are eminently worthy of collective publication.

The celebrated forest of Sherwood included within its bounds most of the central part of the county of Nottingham. Its exact bounds were laid down in a perambulation of 1232. Roughly speaking, it was twenty-five miles one way, by nine or ten the other; at one extremity was the county town of Nottingham, and at another was Mansfield, whilst Worksop was close to the northern boundary.

SHERWOOD FORESTER-OF-FEE, SKEGBY CHURCH]

Many of the places afterwards within the forest are named in the _Domesday Survey_ as members of the king’s great manor of Mansfield, so that the amount of royal demesne in the district made its conversion by the early Norman kings into a large forest a comparatively easy matter. The first exact notice of the forest occurs in the year 1154, when William Peverel, the younger, answered to the forest pleas. He controlled the forest, and held the profits under the Crown. On the forfeiture of the Peverel estates the forest lapsed to the king, and was for some time administered by the sheriffs for the joint counties of Derby and Nottingham.

In the time of Richard I., Matilda de Caux and her husband Ralph Fitz-Stephen, were confirmed in the office of chief foresters of Sherwood. Matilda died in 1223, when she was succeeded as chief forester-of-fee by her son John de Birkin, and he in his turn by his son Thomas de Birkin. In 1231 this hereditary office came to Robert de Everingham in right of his wife Isabel, who was sister of Thomas de Birkin. Adam de Everingham was chief forester or keeper of Sherwood at the beginning of the reign of Edward I., and he was succeeded by his son Robert de Everingham. Soon after this, Robert de Everingham incurred the king’s displeasure, and this office was seized by the Crown as forfeited. This Robert de Everingham, who was keeper in 1284, was the last of hereditary descent. The office was afterwards conferred at will by the Crown upon various persons of high position as a mark of royal favour.

From the Close Rolls of 1286, it would appear that the offence which brought about the downfall of the last hereditary keeper of this forest was certain grievous abuse of his position as guardian of the king’s deer. In November of that month the Crown addressed a letter to the deputy of the forest justice beyond Trent ordering the release from Nottingham gaol of Robert de Everingham, John de Everingham, John the Constable, and eight others, imprisoned for trespass of venison in Sherwood, in bail to twelve men, who were bound to produce them at the next eyre, and on condition that they would not hereafter incur forfeiture in that forest.

The royal grants of oaks from Sherwood Forest were frequent throughout the reign of Henry III. In 1228 four oaks were given to William Avenel, described in the grant as waiting on the King of Scotland; two to the leper hospital of Chesterfield; six to the priory of Bligh; six to the canons of Newark; and three to the priory of Thurgarton. The gifts to religious houses usually specify that the trees were for the works then in progress at the churches or other buildings. Occasionally these gifts from Sherwood consisted of ready-trimmed timber; thus in 1228 the king sent twenty beams (_copulas_) from the forest to the church of the distant priory of Wormegay, Norfolk, then in progress; and in 1229 forty rafters (_chevrones_) to the abbot and canons of Croxton. A single oak was also sent in the latter year into Norfolk to one Richard de St. John, chaplain of Henry de Burgs; the bailiff was directed to fell one as near as possible to the river Trent, as it had to reach Norfolk by water carriage. In the same year a single oak was granted to the prior of Bligh to make a door for his hall. In 1231, William Bardulf had a grant from Sherwood Forest of twenty tree trunks suitable for timber (_fusta ad maeremium inde faciendum_).

Henry III. dealt generously with the fallow deer of Sherwood. Thus in 1229 he gave two does to Beatrice, wife of Walter de Evermuth, constable of Lincoln Castle; ten does and a brocket to John, the constable of Chester, to be placed in his park of Dunyton; ten does and two bucks to Hugh Dispencer to help to stock his park at Loughborough; and twenty does and two bucks for the Bishop of Carlisle’s park at Melburne. In 1230, fifteen more does and five bucks were sent to Hugh Dispencer’s park at Loughborough, whilst a further donation of ten does and two bucks was made to the same park in the next year. The Bishop of Lincoln received twelve Sherwood does and three bucks in 1231 towards the stocking of his park at Stowe.

At the eyre of 1251, held at Nottingham before Geoffrey Langley, chief justice of the forests north of the Trent, an inquisition was held respecting the ministers of Sherwood Forest. It was then reported that there were within the forest three keepings, namely, the first between Leen and Doverbeck, the second the High Forest, and the third Rumewood; and that Robert de Everingham, as chief keeper, ought to have a sworn chief servant (a riding or itinerant forester, as described in other forests), who was to go through all the forest at his own cost to attach transgressors, and to present them before the verderers at the attachment courts. In the first keeping, the chief keeper was to have one riding forester with a servant, two foot foresters, two verderers, and two agisters. In this keeping there were three parks or hays, namely, Bestwood, Lindley, and Welby. In the second keeping, of High Forest, Robert de Everingham was to have two riding foresters with their servants, two foot foresters, two verderers, and two agisters. In this keeping were the two parks of Birkland, with Billahaugh and Clipston, to which pertained two other verderers and two agisters. In the third keeping of Rumewood there was to be one foot forester, two verderers, and two agisters; and also two woodwards, one for Carburton and another for Budley.

It was also declared that Robert de Everingham ought to provide a servant, bearing his bow, to gather cheminage through the forest.

At the same inquisition it was further stated that the abbey of Rufford was entitled, by charter of Henry II., to a liberal measure of vert throughout the forest, for they could have whatever timber they required for the building or repairing not only of their establishment at Rufford, but also for all their granges, whether they were situated within or without the forest; they also held the right of haybote, or whatever they required for their fences. The monks might have a forester or woodward of their own, but he was to do fealty before the king’s justices, and to report at the attachment courts what trees had been taken by the abbey’s orders.

Among the grants of timber from this forest made to religious houses in the earlier part of the reign of Edward I. may be mentioned ten oaks, with their loppings (_escætis_), for the Carmelite friars of Lincoln (1276); thirty oaks to the prior of Blyth, to repair his house, accidentally burned (1278); four oaks to the Austin friars of Tickhill, for the work of their church, and six to the Franciscan friars of Nottingham for a like purpose (1279); four oaks fit for timber to the Austin friars of Lincoln (1280); twelve oaks to the priory of Shelford (1281); twelve oaks to the same priory, four oaks to the Franciscan friars of Nottingham, and six oaks for timber to the Franciscan friars of Lincoln, together with twelve oaks for roofing shingles. Oaks were also on several occasions in this reign supplied from Bestwood park for the repairs of Nottingham Castle, and of the royal mills below the castle.

The royal warrants at this period for Sherwood venison and deer are fairly frequent. The king kept Easter, 1276, at Lincoln, and orders were issued on 13th March for fifteen does to be supplied for the royal use at that season from Sherwood Forest, in addition to twelve bucks from Galtres Forest. The keeper of Sherwood was ordered in 1277 to cause Richard Folyot to be supplied with two live bucks and ten does to stock his park at Grimston. In 1279, eight live does and four bucks were granted to William de Colwick to help to stock his park of Colwick.

The Close Rolls supply interesting information now and again of merciful royal attention to venison offences. On 2nd March, 1278, the king ordered Geoffrey de Neville, justice of the forest beyond Trent, to deliver John de Cokefeld from prison to twelve men, who were to mainpern to have him before the king in a month from Easter, if the king or any other wished to speak against him; the charge against him was the taking of a stag (red deer) in Sherwood Forest. The same justice was ordered by Edward I., in 1280, to take no action against Eustace de Hacche and six other transgressors for having taken three does and a hind in this forest, as the king had pardoned them. In 1285, the heavy fine of 100 marks on Thomas de Carducis on account of venison trespass in Sherwood was annulled by letters patent.

Edward I. was much attached to the two younger sons of Walter Bek, baron of Eresby, Thomas and Anthony. They were both king’s clerks, and eventually obtained high promotion; their names occur on various occasions in connection with benefits from this great forest. Thomas, the second son, was consecrated Bishop of St. David’s in 1280. On Christmas Day of the following year, Edward I. granted him four live bucks and eight live does to stock his park at Pleasley, on the confines of the forest. On the same day the king sent a letter to the justices next in eyre for pleas of the forest in the county of Nottingham, ordering them not to molest or vex the bishop on account of four bucks taken by him in the previous autumn, when passing through the royal forest of Sherwood, as the king had sanctioned, by word of mouth, his taking four bucks when next he passed through the forest as a royal gift. In 1285 the same bishop was granted twelve good oak trees fit for timber out of these woods. Anthony Bek, the third son, the celebrated Bishop of Durham, was a still greater favourite of Edward I. In 1282, he had twenty good oaks granted him out of Sherwood for the construction of his houses at Somerton, as well as four bucks and eight does to stock his park at Northwell. In the following year he was the recipient of twelve oaks and eight live deer from the like source. The king, as a special mark of his favour, at the time of Anthony’s consecration to the bishopric of Durham, in January, 1284, forwarded to the bishop the largest grant out of Sherwood Forest of which there is record, namely, ten live bucks and twenty live does.

The forest pleas began to be held irregularly in the latter part of Henry III.’s reign, especially north of the Trent. There was an eyre, however, held for Sherwood at Nottingham in 1263, and again in 1267. At the latter date the abbot of Rufford was charged with having taken 483 oaks out of the forest since the last eyre; but he successfully pleaded the charter of Henry II. in justification.

With the advent of Edward I. to the throne, all attempts at regularity in holding the eyres seem to have been abandoned. So far as Sherwood was concerned, an eyre was held in 1287, but nearly half a century elapsed before the forest justices again visited Nottingham, namely, in 1334.

The pleas of the foresters and verderers of Sherwood were held at Nottingham on 14th January, 1287, before Sir William de Vesey, Thomas de Normanville, and Richard de Crepping, justices in eyre of the lord king. The verderers were six in number. Robert de Everingham was the forester-in-fee, and under him were eight sworn foresters.

The following venison presentment, cited by Mr. Turner, may be given as an example:—

“It is presented and proved that on the Wednesday next after
the Feast of St. William, Archbishop of York, in the year
aforesaid, Robert, the son of Agnes Bode of Edwinstowe, and
Richard atte Townsend of the same town, came by night through
the middle of the town of Wellow with two fawns of a kind.
And the aforesaid Richard was taken with his fawn by men
watching in the town of Wellow; and committed to the stocks
of Peter de la Barre of the same town. And the same Robert
broke his stocks and fled; therefore the aforesaid Peter foond
mainpernors to make answer. And the aforesaid Richard came, and
being convicted of this is sent to prison (and he is ransomed
elsewhere). And it is witnessed that Robert, the son of Agnes,
is dead; therefore nothing of him. And the aforesaid Peter
dwells in the same county; therefore the sheriff is ordered,
etc.”

Sir William de Vesey and his fellow justices finding that the king had sustained many losses since the last eyre held by Robert de Neville and others, arising in many instances from the assize of the forest not being sufficiently observed, it was by them provided:—

That all verderers, in accordance with the charter of the
forest, were to assemble every forty days to hold attachments
for vert and venison and small pleas.

That they were to present a single roll of vert and venison to
the justices in eyre, and not each one a separate roll for his
own bailiwick.

That anyone dwelling in the forest found felling a green oak be
attached for the next attachment court, there to find pledges
till the next eyre, and to pay the price to the verderers; a
second offence to be dealt with in like manner; but for a third
offence to be imprisoned at Nottingham, and there kept till he
be delivered by the king or justice of the forest.

That anyone dwelling outside the forest committing any trespass
against the vert, his body is to be committed to prison till
he be delivered by the king or justice; for a third offence
he is also to lose his horses and cart or his oxen and wagon,
or their price, and that price is to be paid at the next
attachment to the verderers for the king’s use.

That those dwelling in the forest caught cutting saplings,
branches, or drywood from oaks, or hazels, or thorns, or limes,
or alders, or hollies, or such-like trees without warrant,
are to be attached by two good pledges to come to the next
attachment court, there to be amerced for the king; but if it
be for a sapling which is of greater price than 4_d._ or any
higher sum, to be attached until the next eyre.

That escapes of beasts of the plough into the forest be pleaded
in the attachments, and amends taken for the use of the king.

That no man carry bows or arrows in the forest, outside the
king’s highway, save a sworn forester, and on the king’s
highway only in accordance with the assize of the forest.

That no man save a sworn forester or other sworn officer attach
any one in the future.

That any dweller outside the forest agisting his animals
therein is to have such animals taken before the verderers, and
the price paid, and to make answer before the justices in eyre.

That the great burden of so many regarders is no longer to
be endured, but that in this forest the number be limited to
twelve.

And that those taken by night or in the fence month within the
forest be dealt with as before.

From the MS. book dealing with the perambulations and pleas of Sherwood in the reigns of Henry III.-Edward III., it appears that the very large number of 350 head of deer (both red and fallow) had fallen victims to the murrain in the year previous to the holding of this eyre.

The attachment rolls of this forest for 1292-3 are chiefly of interest on account of the presentment of vert offences, and the fines assigned. A green oak was valued at 6_d._, and a dry or leafless oak at 4_d._ A sapling (_bletrum_) varied from 1_d._ to 3_d._; and a stub or dry trunk of a pollarded tree at 2_d._ In one case the same offender was fined 12_d._ for three dry oaks, 12_d._ for two green ones, and 2_d._ for a sapling.

Another survey of the forest was held in 29 Edward I. (1300), when the bounds as fixed by 16 Henry III. were confirmed, but with certain important additions.

In April, 1309, the sheriff was ordered to assemble all the regarders and foresters to make regard or survey therein before the coming of the justices of the forest, and to cause regarders to be elected in the place of those who were dead or infirm, so that they be twelve in number. The foresters were to swear that they would lead twelve knights throughout their whole bailiwicks to view all the trespasses, and to set out the same in writing. The phrase as to the coming of the justices was a mere form; it was repeated in the summons for the regard of Sherwood in 1312, although in neither case was the survey followed by an eyre.

Ample provision of wood from this forest was made on the occasion of the Parliament being held at Lincoln in the early part of 1316. The keeper was ordered to deliver to the sheriff fifty leafless oaks in the wood of Bliorth, within the bounds of Sherwood Forest, belonging to the archbishopric of York, then void and in the king’s hands, for the twofold object of making charcoal and providing boards for dressers or tressle tables; also thirty oaks from the forest near the banks of the Trent for firewood for the king’s hall; and thirty leafless oaks for firewood for the king’s chamber against the ensuing Parliament at Lincoln, to be felled and carried to Lincoln by the sheriff, and there to be delivered by him to the clerk of the king’s scullery.

The oaks of Sherwood Forest were always held in good repute when choice timber was required. An order was made by Edward II., when at Nottingham Castle on 28th December, 1324, that the sheriff of Nottingham was to have the best oak or other timber out of the forest that might be selected by the carpenters as most suitable for the construction of nine springalds. The springald was a kind of catapult weapon for the discharge of stones or great arrows; these nine engines were required as part of the armament for the expedition into the duchy of Acquitaine.

A large bundle of attachment court records from 1317 to 1324 are of interest as showing how often these minor forest courts were at that period being held in Sherwood. They were held at four different centres, namely, Edwinstowe, Mansfield, Lindley, and Calverton. In the year 1317 twenty-two of these courts were held, six each at Edwinstowe and Mansfield, five at Lindley, and four at Calverton. Amongst those presented for vert offences in 1318 were two of the local secular clergy, namely, Nicholas de Nottingham, rector of Clipston, for taking a load of branches, fined 1_d._, and Robert de Kirkby, rector of Kirkby, who was fined 3_d._ for appropriating a dry stub. William de Bevercote, one of the prebendaries of Southwell, committed a more serious trespass (probably venison) about this date, for which he was imprisoned at Nottingham. In October, 1319, the king ordered his release to twelve mainpernors, who were to produce him before the justices at the next eyre.

After an interval of nearly fifty years the forest pleas for Sherwood were again held at Nottingham, namely, on 2nd March, 1334, before Ralph de Neville, Richard de Aldborough, and Peter de Middleton. The following is an example of a venison presentment at this eyre, having reference to a trespass that was nine years old:—

“It is presented and proved that Hugh of Wotehall of
Woodborough, William Hyend, Wilcock formerly the servant of the
parson of Clifton, and Stephen Fleming of Nottingham, on 13
June, 1325, were in the wood of Arnold, in the place which is
called Throwys, with bows and arrows. And they shot a hart so
that it died. And its flesh was found putrid and devoured by
vermin in a place which is called Thweycehilli; and the arrow
was found in the said hart, wherewith it was shot. And the
aforesaid Hugh came before the justices and is sent to prison.
And the aforesaid William and Wilcock are not found. Nor have
they anything whereby, etc.; therefore let them be exacted.
And the aforesaid Stephen Fleming is dead; therefore nothing
of him. And afterwards the aforesaid Hugh is brought out of
prison, and is pardoned because he is poor. And the aforesaid
William and Wilcock were exacted in the county and did not
appear; therefore they are outlawed.”

The number of venison presentments at this eyre was 119, which was not at all large considering the long period since the last of these courts. In several cases there was no definite charge of deer-slaying, or even being seen with dogs or bows and arrows, but simply of trespass. Such trespass would be by strangers at night, or during the fence month. Some of the transgressors were of high position, among them including John, son of Lord John de Grey, who was found in the Bestwood enclosure with bows and six greyhounds, running a herd of hinds (_herdum bissarum_), of which he killed two; John le Bret, “duc de Wenton,” who killed a hind with four greyhounds; and Henry Curson, of Breadsall, who killed a hind at “Crossedoke,” in Clipston wood.

In one case a hind met with its death in an exceptional manner. John Bot, of Boltby, mower of Allerton, struck a hind with a stone and broke one of its legs; this caused its death, and it was found drowned in the stream of Allerton, by Langwith bridge.

At this eyre the ministers of the forest were asked upon their oath from what person or persons the foresters were wont to receive and have their living. In reply they cited from an inquiry made by writ in 1289, shortly after Edward I. had removed Robert de Everingham from his bailiwick as hereditary keeper or chief forester by reason of his misdeeds, citing the various extensive perquisites and privileges that he had maintained.

In return for these emoluments Robert de Everingham provided foresters at his own charge. It therefore followed that after the keepership was forfeited to the Crown, that the foresters were to continue to be paid by whomsoever the Crown from time to time appointed keeper.

A roll of amercements of persons convicted at the attachment courts of vert trespasses appraised at more than 4_d._, and which could not be amerced save at the eyre, was presented to the justices. This roll included about 750 trespasses, varying in price of the vert from 6_d._ for honey found in an oak, for boughs, and for trunks, to 2_s._ for a single oak. These values had already been paid to the verderers, and the additional fines now imposed by the justices varied from 1_s._ to 2_s._ In each case the names of the two pledges for the trespasser’s appearance follow the entry of the offence.

It is not surprising, after all this interval since the last eyre, to find that some of the verderers’ rolls for the different attachment courts of the forest were missing for the years 1288, 1289, 1290, and 1291. The fines imposed upon the verderers of 1334 for these losses amounted to the considerable sum of £20 8_s._ 2_d._

As the justices of the forest so seldom appeared, they seem to have been all the more determined to exact appearances and respect when the eyre was held. The whole of the free tenants of the forest had to put in an appearance. On the first day three of them were absent. John Bardolf successfully pleaded that he had not received his letter of summons; but Adam de Everyngham was fined 15_s._, and Joan, widow of Ralph de Birton, 6_s._ 8_d._ for their absence. The reeves and four-men of every township within the limits had also to be present. On the first day, William Goodrych, and William de Normanton, both of Lenton, were fined collectively 3_s._ 4_d._, whilst William Router, the reeve of Basford, had to pay 2_s._

Before the justices left Nottingham, they issued a series of pardons for both venison and vert offences. Amongst the eighteen pardoned were Sir John le Bret, the rector of Annesley, and the vicar of Edwinstowe.

In 1340, the king pardoned John, Bishop of Carlisle, for killing a doe in Sherwood Forest and taking it away.

In the accounts presented by William Latimer, who was then keeper of Sherwood Forest, for the years 1368-9, record is made of the whole of the attachment courts. The return shows that substantial efforts were then made to comply with the forest law by holding attachments every forty days in each district; Edwinstowe was the only centre that fell short of the proper number, having but seven of these forest courts during the twelvemonth; nine each were held at Mansfield, Lindley, and Calverton. There are no special features about the presentments of that year.

The Sherwood exchequer accounts for 1395-6 show that £30 of the forest profits were that year expended upon the royal lodge or manor house of Clipston.

The accounts for 1430-2 give full details of the agistment of the park of Clipston; cows were charged from 6_d._ to 10_d._ each, and calves 3_d._; the total agistment for 1431 came to 20_s._ 7_d._ Particulars are also given of the pannage in Bestwood park; the average charge for each pig at this date was 2_d._

From an inspeximus and confirmation granted to the monks of Rufford in 1462, citing all their old royal charters, it appeared that the men of Clipston and Edwinstowe were not allowed to take anything from the abbey woods that were within the forest, and that the monks were at liberty to sell all windfalls within their woods, and to root up dead stumps, and take heather without let or hindrance.

Sir William Hastings, in 1471, was granted for life by the Crown, the offices of constable of Nottingham Castle, together with that of keeper and steward of Sherwood Forest, and the keepership or wardship of all the parks and woods, with every possible privilege of agistment, pannage, cheminage, dog-silver, etc. The abuse of accumulating a great number of distinct forest offices in one man’s hands and allowing all the work to be done by poorly paid underlings or deputies began, so far as Sherwood was concerned, soon after the extinction in Edward I.’s time of the hereditary forestership.

In the reign of Edward IV., and subsequently, various appointments of king’s foresters of Sherwood are entered on the Patent Rolls at a wage of 4_d._ a day.

A forest session was held at Allerton on 3rd June, 1538. Among the higher officials, Thomas Earl of Rutland is named as master of the game, and Sir John Byron as keeper of Bestwood park and forester of Thorney. Eleven other foresters, thirty-five woodwards, fourteen regarders, three verderers, and the constables and four-men of twenty-eight townships are all specified as being in attendance.

The large majority of the constables and “fower-men” of different towns stated on their corporal oath that they “doth knowe nothing that is to the disturbaunce of the kyng his game or woode within the seide Foreste.” Among the exceptions may be quoted the two following presentments from Mansfield:—

“Item, the Constable and Fower men of the towneshippe of
Mannsefelde sayeth that one Cristofer Shutte, Gerves Herdy,
and one William Falcherde dothe kepe in their howses moo Fyres
then of right they ought to do, wherebye the kyng his woode is
destroyed extendyng every yere to three score lodes contrarie
the Statute of the Forest.

“Item, that one Richarde Swynesloo, Thomas Clerke, Cristofer
Bradeshawe [and five others] dothe staff-hyrde theire shepe of
the Kyng his Common the number of twelve score where the Kyng
his deare shulde have their peacablie Feadyng.”

The jury of freemen of the town of Nottingham presented the names of four burgesses, each of whom owned a greyhound, but stated that they only kept them for the purpose of hunting hares and foxes in the forest (to which they had a chartered right), and not for the disturbance of the king’s game. The justices accepted their plea as to the motive for keeping the greyhounds. They also made two orders affecting the forest wood—firstly, that no hedgebote nor firebote was to be taken without the deliverance of the woodward, nor any housebote without the deliverance of the keeper as well as the woodward; and secondly, that no one was to fell any of his own wood for any intent “withoute the especiall lycense of the kynge his highnes, or the Justice of the Foreste, and that none from hencesforthe do take aine woode for bleaching.”

MONUMENT OF THOMAS LEAKE—BLIDWORTH CHURCH]

At the east end of the south aisle of Blidworth church, which stands on a commanding site about the centre of Sherwood Forest, is a mural tablet to the memory of a local Elizabethan worthy, Thomas Leake, who was ranger of Blidworth walk or ward of this forest. The memorial tablet was put up a few years later; round the margin (Plate XX.) are a curious number of hunting trophies, longbows, crossbows, horn, hounds, etc. The epitaph is:—

Here rests T. Leake, whose virtues were so knowne
In all these parts, that this engraved stone
Needs naught relate but his untimely end,
Which was in single fight, whylst youth did lend
His ayde to valor, hee wᵗ ease oerpast
Many slyght dangers, greater then this last;
But willfulle fate in these things governs all,
Hee towld out threescore years before his fall,
Most of wʰ tyme hee wasted in this wood
Much of his wealth, and last of all his blood.
1608. Febr. 4.

The date on the slab is that of its erection. The parish registers show that “Thomas Leeke, esquier,” was buried on 4th February, 1597-8. In the churchyard stands a massive cross to his memory. A brass plate affixed to it in 1836 records that the cross was originally erected at the place in the woodlands where this _gladiator insignis_ met with his death, and moved at that date to the churchyard.

A careful survey made in 1609 showed that there were then 21,009 oak trees in Birkland, and 28,900 in Bilhagh, or a total of 49,909, and that the trees in general were, even at that date, past maturity. It may here be mentioned, as showing the steady diminution of timber that went on from that date, through decay, tempest, and felling, that in 1686 the Birkland and Bilhagh trees only totalled 37,316, including a great number of hollow or decayed trees, and that in 1790 they were reduced to 10,117.

A large number of these trees during this period were felled for the navy, particularly under the Commonwealth; but the stock was subject to further reduction on a large scale by exceptional grants that were made from time to time. Thus, about 1680 the inhabitants of Edwinstowe petitioned the Crown for permission to fell 200 oaks to the value of £200, out of the hays of Birkland and Bilhagh, for the repair of their parish church, then in a ruinous condition through the fall of the steeple. The petition was entertained, and on a survey being made for that purpose it was found that “although there were yet standing many thousand trees, few of which there were but what were decaying, and very few useful for the navy.”

As to the red deer of the forest—the fallow deer were confined to the parks—they increased during the eighteenth century. The 1,000 head of 1538 was admittedly only a rough estimate; a more particular survey of 1616 gave the numbers at 1,263, and another of 1635 at 1,367. Out of the latter total, 987 were termed _raskall_, or out of condition.

In 1708 a representative meeting of the gentlemen of the north of the county was held at Rufford, at which a strongly-worded petition was adopted, addressed to the Crown, complaining of “the grievous and almost intolerable burden we labour under by reason of the numerous increase of the red deer in the forest of Sherwood these late years.” They complained that so many of the woods had been granted or given away by the queen’s predecessors that there was but little harbour left for the deer in the forest, and the deer in consequence were distributed all over the county, eating up the corn and grass; that their tenants had often to watch all night to keep the deer off; that their servants were terrified by several new keepers made by the present deputy-warder, who “threaten them if so much as they do set a little dog at the deer though in the corn”; that not only had they to watch their cornfields, where the deer often lay nine or ten brace together, but they so destroy private woods as to injure them to the extent of from £10 to £50 a year.

At the same time another petition was addressed to the House of Commons with about 400 signatures, wherein it was stated that the number of red deer in the forest, “till very lately, had seldom or never exceeded three hundred, which was as great a number, considering the barrenness of the soil and the great destruction of the woods, as the forest could maintain.” In the light of other evidence this estimate, used for the sake of strengthening the petitioners’ arguments, was probably much below the mark. The petitioners proceeded to state that these deer now numbered more than 900; that they roamed over the whole country to find sustenance, but more particularly that these depredations were chiefly carried on in “the division called Hatfield and the whole district of the Clay; and that these parts of the county were outside the forest limits according to the perambulation and inquisition of Edward I.” The petitioners were not well advised as to the bounds, and had apparently confused the perambulation of Henry III. with that of Edward I. This petition met with no favour, for it was argued, though incorrectly, that the owners had never before been asked to stint the number of deer, and that it was a request to Parliament to take away the queen’s liberty and right without her consent. On a copy of this petition still extant is endorsed:—

“’Tis no doubt but that if there were no more than fifty deer
in the whole forest, and if it should happen that they were on
any one particular man’s two or three acres of corn or turnips,
they would be sure to lessen his crop; yet he bought the land
with the incumbrance, and it is past all dispute that the queen
has as much right to it as any man has to his own coat.”

At this period the forest was no source of profit to the Crown, but the contrary. £1,000 a year was granted during Anne’s reign to maintain the deer and the new park at Clumber, and to hunt with two huntsmen, forty couple of hounds, eleven horses, and four grooms; there were four “forest keepers” at £25 each, and four “deputy purlieu rangers” at £10 each; the winter hay for the deer averaged £100 a year.

But from 1683 the area of the forest was being constantly curtailed; in that year 1,270 acres, out of the hays of Bilhagh and the White Lodge, were sold to the Duke of Kingston to be enclosed within his park of Thoresby. At the beginning of the next century about 3,000 acres of the previous open forest were impaled to protect the deer, under the auspices of the Duke of Newcastle, who was then keeper; this was called the New Park, and is now known as Clumber Park. Between 1789 and 1796 inclusive, Acts were passed for the enclosure of Arnold Forest, Basford Forest, Sutton in Ashfield, Kirby in Ashfield, and Lenton and Radford, whereby 8,248 acres were brought into cultivation.

When Major Rooke published his interesting _Sketch of the Ancient and Present State of Sherwood Forest_, in 1799, the part of the forest that still remained to the Crown were the hays of Birkland and Bilhagh, which had a total extent of 1,487 acres.

At that time the ministers of this much restricted forest were the Duke of Portland, lord warden by letters patent; four verderers, Sir F. Molineux, Bart., John Litchfield, E. T. Gould, and W. Sherbrook, Esquires, elected by the freeholders for life; and John Gladwin, Esq., steward, appointed by the lord chief justice in eyre during pleasure. The office of bow-bearer had been vacant since the death of Lord Byron. There were also nine keepers appointed by the verderers during pleasure, with an annual salary of 20_s._ each, and two annually sworn woodwards for Sutton and Carlton. Each of the verderers received a fee-tree annually out of the king’s hays of Birkland and Bilhagh.

Major Rooke—when writing of the many venerable old oaks of extraordinary size then standing, several of them measuring 34 feet in circumference, and with tops and lateral branches rich in foliage, though hollow in their trunks—tells of the remarkable extent of the woodland as late as the beginning of the eighteenth century:—

“The Revd. Dr. Wylde, Prebend of Southwell and rector of St.
Nicholas in Nottingham, assured me he had often heard his
father, William Wylde, Esq., of Nettleworth, who died in the
year 1780, in the 83rd year of his age, say, that he well
remembered one continued wood from Mansfield to Nottingham.”

Major Rooke, in the same pamphlet, gives a remarkable account, with plates, of the curious discovery of ancient tree marks or brands that were found cut and stamped in the bodies of certain trees recently felled in Birkland and Bilhagh, and which denote the reigning king.

“No. 1 has hollow or indented letters I and R for James Rex.
No. 2 has the same letters in relief, which filled up the
interstices of the letters in No. 1 before the piece was split.
It is remarkable that when the bark has been stript off for
cutting letters, the wood which grows over the wound never
adheres to that part, but separates of itself when the wood
is cut in that direction. The piece No. 3 has the letters W.
M., with a crown for King William and Queen Mary. No. 4 has
the letter I, with an imperfect impression of a blunt radiated
crown, resembling those represented in old prints on the head
of King John; another piece, cut out of an oak some years ago,
had the same kind of crown with I. O. and R. for John Rex. The
piece of oak No. 1, with the letters I. and R., was about one
foot within the tree and one foot from the centre; it was cut
down in the year 1786. That with W. M. and a crown was about
nine inches within the tree and three inches from the centre;
cut down in 1786. The piece marked I, for John, was eighteen
inches within the tree and above a foot from the centre; cut
down in 1791.”

In 1834, Earl Manver’s woodman felled an oak near Ollerton Corner, wherein the initials C. R. were found impressed upon the wood, 15 inches from the surface. It is impossible not to feel sceptical as to the tree branding of the time of King John. The question was discussed, in 1813, in the _Beauties of England and Wales_ (vol. xii., part 2, pp. 62-3). There are interesting references to the subject of the permanence of brands cut on the actual wood of growing trees in _Notes and Queries_ (iv. Series, vols. ix. and x.).

Though the glories of Sherwood as a royal open forest have long ago passed away, the noble private parks of Clumber, Thoresby, Welbeck, Rufford, and Bestwood occupy some of its choicest portions. They not only include much of the ancient timber, but they are well stocked with red and fallow deer, which are in some instances the undoubted descendants of those that used to roam at will through the forest glades in mediæval days.

HAYWOOD OAKS, BLIDWORTH]

A book might readily be written on special historic trees still standing within the bounds of old Sherwood Forest, particularly on the stretches of old forest at Birkland and Bilhagh, and on the less known noble groups of ancient oaks at Haywood (Plate XXI.), near Blidworth. It is only possible, however, to offer a brief paragraph on that Methusaleh of the forest, the Greendale oak, a picture of which, as it appeared at the end of the eighteenth century, is given as a frontispiece. In Evelyn’s days this famous Welbeck oak was 33 feet in circumference at the bottom, and the breadth of the boughs 88 feet. The circumference in 1776 and in 1790 was variously stated at 36 and 35 feet. Having become hollowed through age, the great gap through the centre was enlarged in 1724 by cutting away the decayed wood to such a height and width that a carriage and six, with cocked-hatted coachman on the box, drove through the tree with the bride of the noble owner. Three horsemen riding abreast were able to pass through, a feat often accomplished. In 1727 a series of fine folio plates of this tree, including the passage of the six-horsed coach, were etched on copper by George Vertue, forming a most rare volume. From the wood cut out of the opening for the foolish freak of 1724, a beautiful inlaid cabinet of considerable size was made, which is considered one of the treasures of Welbeck Abbey. The Greendale oak still survives, but only in the form of a shattered propped-up wreck.