Chapter XXIV: The Forest of Windsor

The forest of Windsor was at one time of immense extent, having a circumference of about 120 miles. It included a part of Buckinghamshire, a small portion of Middlesex, the south-east side of Berkshire as far as Hungerford, and a very large part of Surrey. In the early part of its history almost the whole of Surrey was technically within the bounds of Windsor forest, and subject to forest law; whilst for several centuries the rights of Windsor forest on the Surrey side included Cobham and Chertsey, and extended along the side of the Wey as far as Guildford. But it gradually dwindled in extent through encroachments and grants, so that when Norden made his detailed survey in the time of James I., the circuit, exclusive of the Buckingham liberties, was only 77½ miles. At the time of its enclosure in 1813, the circuit had been still further reduced to 56 miles.

There is a noteworthy reference in the Close Rolls at the end of John’s reign to the deer of this great forest. On 9th January, 1215, the king gave orders for no fewer than sixty-four deer to be supplied out of Windsor forest for the great feast at the consecration of the bishop-elect of Coventry. This feast took place at Reading, for William Cornhill was consecrated Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield, and Richard le Poor Bishop of Chichester, on 25th January, in the infirmary chapel of the Benedictine abbey of that town.

The references to royal grants made by Henry III. out of Windsor forest are numerous and interesting, but for these search must be made in the printed calendars of both Close and Patent Rolls.

The grants of timber in Henry III.’s reign out of Windsor forest were not nearly so numerous as those from royal forests in Northamptonshire, Wiltshire, Hampshire, or Essex; in fact, there were exceptionally large tracts of open common and waste in this widespread forest district, where even bushes were exceptional. The donations that were made were chiefly to the religious, to the friars of Oxford, Reading, and London, to the abbeys of Chertsey and Westminster, to the priories of Ankirk and Merton, and particularly to the nunnery of Bromhall, within the forest.

Among the more interesting grants of timber for specific purposes are those relative to ships and boats. In 1221 a grant of beechwood was made to William Earl of Salisbury for building a ship; the trees selected were to be those growing near the banks of the Thames, as the timber was to be taken down to London. The constable of Windsor was directed, in 1224, to supply the chaplain of the chapel of St. Mary of Faversham with timber for making a boat (_batellum_) so that poor people and others might be able to cross the Thames to Faversham and back. Again, at a little later date, a good oak was supplied wherewith to make a boat for the conveyance of poor folk over the water of Cavresham.

The ancient mitred abbey of Chertsey, founded in the seventh century, had many liberties and rights within this forest, particularly on the Surrey side. William II. granted the abbey leave to take wood for their necessary uses out of the Surrey forests, and to hunt therein hare and fox. Henry II., in a further charter, added to this general free warren liberty to hunt the wild cat and to take pheasants, to impale parks at Ebisham and Coveham, to have all the game in them free from molestation by the king’s foresters, and that none of the forest justices or other ministers were to disturb them in their four manors of Chertsey, Egham, Thorpe, and Chobham, or even to enter therein. The venison privileges were limited by charter of Richard I. and John, but their manorial powers were increased.

The pleas of the forest were held at Guildford in 1256, but the earliest eyre within Windsor forest of which there are any details was that held at Guildford on 8th July, 1270, before Justices Roger de Clifford, Matthew de Colombieres, Nicholas de Romsey, and Reginald de Acle. It was then presented and proved by the verderers and by twenty-four good men of the town of Guildford and its vicinity, as well as by many sworn townships, that Walter Walerund, William his brother, and three others who were all dead, as well as Thomas de Bois, a survivor, were all habitual evil-doers to the venison of the king and to his conies in Guildford park; that sometimes they were harboured at the house of Alan de Slyfield, and sometimes at the house of John atte Hook, who were privy to their offences; and that all these persons, on Whitsunday, 1267, took in the park, without warrant, a buck, a doe, and thirteen conies, and that Robert de Ford was their harbourer and privy to it. Ralph, Alan, and John appeared, and were convicted and imprisoned. The sheriff was ordered to produce Thomas and Robert at the court on 18th July. When Thomas de Bois appeared he was imprisoned, but before the pleas were ended he was released on payment of a mark. Ralph, Alan, and John were also released on payment of half a mark. The next presentment was against five persons who entered the same park on 22nd July, 1263, with bow and arrows and greyhounds, to do evil to the king’s venison. Three of the offenders were dead, and the other two were ordered to attend the court day by day. It was afterwards proved that two more persons of this poaching party had entered the park seven years previously; one of these was then living at Farnborough, and the justice sent an order to the sheriff of Hampshire to arrest him and keep him safely in prison until the eyre was held at Winchester.

The information as to the agisting of the park, presented at this eyre, is of interest. In 1257 the park was agisted with ten horses and a hundred cattle for eight weeks, from Hockday to the Nativity of St. John Baptist, at a charge of 1_d._ a head. After 24th June there remained on the park herbage twenty plough-beasts at ¾_d._ a week. In the same year the park was agisted for 156 pigs, and there was given in the name of pannage for the king every third pig, or 52 pigs in all, each worth 2_s._ Particulars, approximately the same, save that there was no pannage, follow on the roll for the next two years. In 1260 there was no agistment of herbage in consequence of the war, but the park was agisted with 240 pigs for mast, 4_d._ being paid for each pig. In 1261 and in 1262 the park was not agisted, neither for herbage nor pannage. In 1263 there were 100 pigs for mast at 4_d._ a pig. In 1264 there was no agistment for pigs through lack of mast, but it was agisted for a month with 56 plough-beasts. Fifty oaks were felled this year for the king’s house-building works at Guildford.

The bounds of the Surrey part of Windsor forest at this eyre were given as: through Ham as far as Guildford bridge along the bank of the Wey; from Guildford bridge along the “Copledecroche” (Hog’s Back) as far as the “Malloesot” bridge; by the Woodbrook as far as “Brodesford” bridge (Blackwater bridge); and so far by the king’s highway to Herpesford; and so by the little river from Herpesford as far as Chertsey; and so by the Thames to Ham.

The Close Rolls of 1275 show that the keeper of this forest received a considerable salary. Geoffrey de Picheford, constable of the castle, was ordered in that year to pay 12_d._ daily to Robert de Say, whom the king had appointed chief forester and minister of the forest during good behaviour, in place of John Inglehard, deceased, for his expenses about that custody. In that year the foresters and verderers were busy in selecting oaks and beeches throughout the forest to be used for the impaling of Windsor park and the king’s other works. A little later in the reign oaks were felled to be used in the making of a great barge for the king’s ferry at Datchet. In 1276 the constable of the Tower of London obtained thirty Windsor oaks to burn lime with for the works of the Tower.

The impaling of the new park of Windsor seems to have been completed in 1278. In November of that year the keeper of Chute forest, Wilts, was informed by the king that he was sending one of his yeomen to take in that forest live deer to stock his park at Windsor, and that he was to permit as many to be taken as could be without damage to Chute forest. In the previous year the Close Rolls also supply the information that there were then wild (_silvestres_) bulls and cows in Windsor park; the constable was ordered to effect their capture and sale, and to use the money towards the expenses of the king’s children then staying at the castle.

The keeper of Windsor forest received orders from Edward I. on 20th May, 1286, when the king was just about to cross the seas, to admit Edmund, Earl of Cornwall, his kinsman, to chase in that forest at pleasure, and to permit him to take deer, and to aid and counsel him in so doing. A record was to be kept of the number of the deer thus taken.

The forest perambulations of 1299-1300 yield the following as to the Surrey side of this forest:—

“The perambulation of the forest of Windsor, in the county
of Surrey, made on the Saturday next before the feast of St.
Gregory the Pope, in the twenty-eighth year of the reign
of king Edward, at Lambeth before Roger Brabancon, John of
Berwick, Ralph of Hingham, William Inge, and John of Croxley,
in the presence of Phillip de Sai, clerk of the justice of the
forest, the foresters and verderers of the forest aforesaid,
by the oath of William Aumbesas, John of Burstow, Robert of
Bekwell, knights, Robert le Dol, Robert of Walton, William of
Northwood, John Prodhomme, Robert att Send, Nicholas of Weston,
Richard of Horton, Edmund of Utworth, and John of Farnham, who
say upon their oath that the whole county of Surrey was forest
in the time of king Henry, the great-grandfather of the king
who now is, and the same king Henry died seised of it; and so
it remained forest until the fourth day of December in the
first year of the reign of king Richard, who then disafforested
a certain part of the same county by certain metes, which
are contained in the charter of the same king Richard made
concerning them, to wit, between Kent and the water which is
called the Wey, and from the hill of Guild Down as far as the
county of Surrey extends towards the south; and the rest of the
county aforesaid, to wit, beginning at the water of the Wey, as
far as the county of Surrey extends, to the north of the hill
of Guild Down, remained and is forest. And after that charter
was made nothing was afforested or occupied by king Richard or
by king John or by anybody else.

“They say also that they do not know that any part of the
county aforesaid was afforested by the aforesaid Henry, the
great-grandfather of the king who now is.”

There was a good deal of fickleness shown by Edward III. and his advisers with regard to the Surrey part of the forest at the beginning of his reign, as shown by the entries on the Patent and Close Rolls. On 27th December, 1327, the recent perambulation of the Surrey forest was confirmed. The perambulation began at “Waymuthe,” and thence along the Thames to “Ladenlakeshacehe,” where the three counties of Surrey, Berks, and Bucks met; thence to the eastern corner of Windsor Park, to the mill of Harpsford, to Thornhill, ... and thence to Bridford, where the three counties of Surrey, Berks, and Hants met. This ratification concluded with the assertion that the whole county of Surrey was without the forest, and was so in the time of Henry, the king’s great-grandfather.

At the same time a mandate was issued to the sheriff to have the king’s letters patent read in full county court, the proclamation publicly proclaimed, and to cause it to be observed; but saving to the king forty days from that date to chase the deer into his forest in places which, according to the perambulation, are without the forest. Another mandate of the like date was issued to the constable of Windsor Castle to use all diligence in chasing all such deer in Surrey into the king’s forest within the forty days.

The sheriff of Surrey was instructed on 15th October, 1329, to make summons for an eyre of forest pleas for that county at Guildford, on Monday after St. Andrew’s Day.

On 4th August, 1333, the Surrey disafforesting of six years earlier date, apparently based on hasty and insufficient information, was annulled. Order was then issued to obtain full information as to the bounds of the Surrey forests in the time of the late king, and to cause them henceforth to be guarded by the like boundaries, and this notwithstanding the grant of 1527; for the king had understood that divers woods and open spaces in Surrey ought to be afforested, as was fully proved by divers inquisitions and memoranda in the treasury, and that the said woods and places under colour of the late grant had been disafforested to the king’s manifest harm.

The forest justices (Sir John Ratcliffe and Sir Reginald Gray) sat at Guildford on 8th August, 1488. The keepers of the parks who were present were Sir Reginald Gray for the parks of Guildford and Henley; Richard Pigot, for Poltenhall; and William Mitchell, for Bagshot.

Sir Thomas Bourchier was the keeper, with Sir William Norris, lieutenant, and William Orchard his deputy. One of the foresters was lately dead, but two foresters and one deputy were present. Henry Stokton and William Bantrum, the late verderers, were in attendance, as well as their successors, Henry Slyfeld and John Westbrook.

The regarders numbered eighteen; two of them were described as gentlemen. There were seven woodwards, each of whom returned _omnia bene_. The reeves and four-men of the townships of Ash, Byfleet, Chertsey, Egham, Frimley, Horsell, Pirbright, Thorpe, Windesham, Woking, and Worplesdon were in attendance, as well as thirteen free tenants.

Among the offences dealt with at this eyre were the cutting down without licence of forty oaks within the forest at Pirbright; killing a great buck at Crowford bridge; the killing of a hind calf with greyhounds by Thomas Forde of Pirbright, who was one of the foresters of the forest of Windsor; the felling and removing of 400 oaks and 300 beeches by Thomas Abbot of Chertsey, without licence; killing a stag with greyhounds at Wanburgh; and various instances of shooting at deer, or slaying them with bows and arrows, and setting nets for their capture. Ralph Baggley was fined 100_s._ for being a common destroyer of pheasants and partridges and a taker of birds. Another transgressor had slain six pheasants with a hawk.

The reeve and four-men of Chobham presented John Wode for following the craft of a tanner within the forest, and he was fined 12_d._ They also presented another man for having a warren, and he was mulcted in the like sum.

The following particulars were supplied to the justices respecting the deer of Guildford park during Henry VII.’s reign:—

“The sum of the Dere slayn by our Sovereyn lorde the kynge
in the parke of Gylforde att the feste of Seynt Mychaell the
fyrste yere of hys Reygne.

Imprimis slayn of Dere of Auntyller xvj.
Item the same season lx doys.
Item iij fones.
Item ij prykettes.
Item the same yere my lord Madurface iij doys and a prykett.
Item Syr John Arundell a Doo.
Item Master Bowchere ij Doys.
Item Syr Thomas Mylborne a Dowe.
Item my lady of Lyncolne a Doo.
Item Syr my lord Awdley a Doo.
Item Syr Jamys Awdley ij Doys.
Item ther dyede in moren xli doys and prykettys.
Item ther dyede the same yere Cxxxv of fones.
Item xj dere of Auntuller.
Item the kynge killede in Som xxiij dere of Auntuller.
Item my lord Grey Codnore a Bukke.
Item my lorde madurface a Bukke.
Item Syr John Arundell a Bukke.
Item Master Bowchere and Syr John Wynfelde a Bukke.
Item the Abbot of Westminster a Bukke.”

In the second of his reign Henry VII. killed in this park, between Michaelmas and All Saints, by his “oon persone” ten does and a fawn. Two does were sent to the king at Westminster on the Feast of All Saints. Six does were sent “to the Coronation of the Quene.” Twenty does, eight bucks, and three sores were sent out as gifts during the year.

A presentment was also made as to the park of Henley-in-the-Heath:—

“THE PARKE OF HENLEY.

“Thees bene the dere that have bene ded in moreyn and that hath
bene slayn seyn the begynnyng of the Reigne of the Kinges grase
that nowe is Kyng Henry the vijᵗʰ.

“Fyrst the Kynges grase kylled hymselff in the seyd parke of
Henley wyth his Bowe and his bukhundes in the Fyrst yere of his
Reigne. iiij bukken.

“Item by his servauntes the same tyme the kyng being in the
seid parke. vj male dere.

“Item to the abbot of Westminster the same year j bukke.

“Item sent to the Court by the Kynges Waraunt the fyrst yere of
his Reygne in Wynter ij does.

“Item delyvered to the abbot of Westminster the second yere of
the Kynges grace—j bukke.

“Item delyvered to my Lord Prynce lyvynge at Farnham, the
second year of the kynges grase in Wynter iij does.

“Item delyvered to the seid abbot the thyrd yere of the kynges
grase j Bukke.

“Thees bene the morens in the seid parke.

“In the fyrst yere of the Kynges grase dyed in moreyn in the
seyd parke of Henley—iiij fawyns, j doe, and a pryker.

“Item in the second yere folowyng, j pryker, and ij faunes.

“Item in the thyrd yere now last past, a soure and tegge.

“Item now in faunsumtyᵉ dyed in fawnyng. ij does.

“Item delyvered to Master Bourghchyer for ij yere, ij Bukken.

“Item Master John of Stanley killed in the seid parke j Bukke.

“Item my lord of Derby servauntes killed in the seid parke j
Tegge.”

The same justices, before they came to Guildford, had held the forest pleas for the Berkshire division of Windsor forest, at New Windsor, on 4th August, 1488. Sir Thomas Bourchier and Sir William Norris were respectively keeper and lieutenant, as in the Guildford division. There were also present bailiffs and deputies of the bailiwicks of Fenie Wood and Finchampstead, and bailiffs of the respective liberties of the bishops of Salisbury and Winchester, the bailiff of Elizabeth the Queen; representative burgesses of Windsor; the late and present verderers; twelve regarders, six of whom were esquires; and jurors for the hundreds of Bray, Cookham, and Sonning.

Those that claimed at this eyre special liberties in the actual forest of Windsor were Elizabeth, Queen of England; the bishops of Winchester and Salisbury; the abbots of Reading, Abingdon, Waltham, Westminster, Stratford Langthorn, Cirencester, and Chertsey; the priors of Hurley, Bisham, and Merton; the prioresses of Bromehall and Ankerwyke, the dean and canons of Windsor, the provost and college of Eton, the dean and chapter of Salisbury, the mayor and citizens of New Windsor, the duchess of Norfolk, and two laymen.

A singular case to come under any kind of forest court was that of John Pomfreth, the tenant of a mill-race (_gurges_), at a place called Hornedroare; he was fined 12_d._ for not supplying drink to the inhabitants when making their Rogation-tide perambulation, according to custom.

Henry VIII. was passionately fond of the chase and of sport in all its forms, so that it is not surprising to find various references to his experiences in this royal forest throughout the papers of his reign. His chief sporting companion was Sir William Fitzwilliam, and on him he conferred the keepership of the Surrey side of the forest. Richard Weston was another of the hunting set, and on him, in 1511, the king conferred the lieutenancy of the castle and forest of Windsor, together with the office of bow-bearer. Another of his boon companions was made bailiff of Finchampstead, within the forest, which was then well supplied with red deer. Business was by him usually sacrificed to pleasure. At the end of July, 1526, Fitzwilliam writes from Guildford: “I received a packet of letters addressed to the king, which I took to His Majesty immediately; but as he was going out to have a shot at a stag, he asked me to keep them until the evening.”

In August, 1528, Sir Thomas Heneage, in a letter to Wolsey, from Easthampstead, said that the king on the previous day had taken great pains with his hunting, from nine in the morning till seven at night, but only obtained one deer—the greatest red deer killed by him or any of his hunters that year—which he sent as a present to the Cardinal. Fitzwilliam, writing to Cromwell in August, 1534, having arrived that night at the Great Park, mentioned that he was in much comfort, as his keepers promised that the king should have great sport, and asked Cromwell to bring his greyhounds with him when he came to either Chertsey or Guildford. In January of the following year, Lord Sandys writes to Cromwell, in sore dread of the king’s wrath, for young Trapnell had killed twenty of the king’s deer on the borders of Windsor forest.

Towards the end of his reign, Henry VIII. made the last royal attempt to afforest a new district. But even his tyrannical disposition was restrained by statute, for he could afforest no man’s estate against his will, and he therefore had to make private arrangements with owners to effect his purpose. When he was established at Hampton Court, the king desired to have a nearer hunting-ground than that adjoining Windsor or Guildford, and therefore he resolved to make forest, if possible, of all the country between Hampton and his new palace of Nonsuch, near Epsom. Partly by new statute and partly by his own headstrong will, he effected most of his purpose. In 1539 he conferred on the district forest rights and privileges, and called it the Honor of Hampton Court. In the following year he obtained from Parliament two Acts, the one “for the uniting of divers lordships and manors to the castle of Windsor,” and the other “for the uniting of the manor of Nonsuch and divers other manors to the Honor of Hampton Court.” But shortly after Henry’s death this newly created honor was dechased, and the deer removed to Windsor forest.

Of Queen Mary it is stated that on the Tuesday after her marriage, when she was at Windsor, a novel method of “sport” was introduced. Toils were raised in the forest four miles in length, when a great number of deer, driven therein by the hounds and huntsmen, were slaughtered.

Elizabeth was much more of a sportswoman than her sister. Under the guidance of her favourite, Sir Henry Neville, the queen frequently hunted in this forest. She remained keenly attached to this royal sport to the end of her days. In January, 1699, Elizabeth wrote to Neville instructing him to give orders for restraint of killing game and deer in Mote and Sunninghill parks in Windsor forest during his absence as resident ambassador in France. As late as 1602 she shot “a great and fat stag” at Windsor with her own hand, which was sent as a present to Archbishop Parker.

The chief matter pertaining to Windsor forest under James I. was the elaborate and careful survey drawn up by John Norden, which was finished in 1607. There is a good abstract of this survey, with a reproduction of that part of his map (at the British Museum) relative to the Great Park, in Mr. Menzies’ fine work on that part of the forest. Norden thus defines the limits of the forest: “This forest lyeth in Berkshire, Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire, and Middlesex. The Tamis bounds it north, the Loddon weste, Brodforde river and Guldowne south, and the Waye river east.” The Great Park had then a circumference of 10¼ miles, and contained 3,650 acres within the counties of Berks and Surrey, whilst his estimate of the extent of the open forest was 24,000 acres.

James raised the wrath of the residents by attempting, soon after his coming to England, to close the Little Park and Cranborne Chase against all comers; but “the squires and better sort,” says Dixon, in _Royal Windsor_, “made private keys and entered like gentlemen of the highest quality; the locks were exchanged, and they broke the fences with as little scruple as the tramps.”

Charles I. hunted here frequently at the beginning of his reign. In 1632 Noy, the king’s attorney-general, styled by Carlyle “that invincible heap of learned rubbish,” revived the forest pleas, and justice-seats were held both at Bagshot and Windsor. Every old formality was strictly observed; at the opening each forester had to present his horn on bended knee to the chief justice in eyre, and each woodward his hatchet; and these insignia of office were not returned until a fine of half a mark had been rendered. The revival of forest pleas in Surrey was bitterly resented. No part of Surrey had been treated as forest until Henry II.’s time, when almost the whole county was by degrees afforested. Richard I. found himself obliged to throw open again all eastward of the Wey, save the royal park and manor of Guildford, leaving the rest of the county to be attached to Windsor, under the title of the bailiwick of Surrey. But from that time onwards there had been more or less resistance to any Surrey afforesting outside the parks, and various sovereigns, particularly Elizabeth, had made important concessions. From 1632 to 1642 many of the gentlemen of Surrey encouraged rather than checked outbreaks of daylight poaching, hunting in companies of eighty or a hundred; at the latter date the exemption from forest law of the whole of Surrey, save Guildford park, was definitely accepted.

In 1640, the grand jury of the county of Berks complained as to “the innumerable red deer in the forest (Windsor), which if they go on so for a few years more, will neither leave food nor room for any other creature in the forest.” They also protested against the rigid enactment of the forest laws and the inordinate fees exacted by some of the forest ministers. In the following year a great tumult arose; the people round the New Lodge, in a riotous fashion, killed 100 fallow deer, in addition to some red deer, and threatened to pull down the pales of that park. The Earl of Holland was then constable of park and forest, and he obtained authority for the sheriff of Berks to raise the power of the county to apprehend the persons engaged in this riot. But in 1642 the Long Parliament took possession of Windsor.

It is in Windsor Park, says Mr. Menzies, that “the oldest authenticated regular plantation in England can be shown.” In 1625, Richard Daye wrote to Secretary Conway, mentioning a proposal that he had previously made for “sowing convenient places in Windsor forest with acorns, which had been favourably received by the late king,” and asking that the project might be laid before Charles I. To this letter he attached a statement to the effect that, in 1580, by order of Lord Burleigh, thirteen acres within Cranborne Walk had been impaled and sown with acorns, which had by that time (after forty-five years’ growth) become “a wood of some thousands of tall young oaks, bearing acorns, and giving shelter to cattle, and likely to prove as good timber as any in the kingdom.” It has been assumed, on excellent grounds, that the plantation here referred to is the large group of oaks at the back of the park bailiff’s house in the direction of Cranborne.

Under the Commonwealth, although Sir Bulstrode Whitelock, constable of the castle and keeper of the forest, was himself a sportsman, the deer disappeared from the Great Park, and only a few remained in the forest. Much of the finest timber was felled, but chiefly for navy purposes. At the Restoration, Charles II., as has been already seen, took some trouble to restock many of the royal parks and forests with both red and fallow deer. In this Windsor had its full share.

In November, 1731, the deer of Windsor forest numbered 1,300; in 1806 they had dwindled to 318. In 1813 came the disafforesting Act for Windsor, and in the following year a troop of the Horse Guards and a detachment of the 5th Infantry were employed for two days in sweeping through the wild heaths and dells that were about to be enclosed, and driving thence the deer into the parks; but in this rough process many were slaughtered.

At the present day the acreage of the Great Park is about 3,000 acres, and it contains, in round numbers, 1,000 fallow and 100 red deer. Cranborne Park, though part of the Great Park, has a pale of its own, and contains a small herd of white red-deer!