chief forester, to hold pleas as to his forests. It is also to be forbidden, at the pleas held at the forests, that any carriage shall go out of the high road into the king's forests, or that there shall be any swine in the king's forests in the fence times,97 that is to say, between fifteen days before the Nativity of Saint John the Baptist, and fifteen days after that feast. It is also to be known, that whoever shall commit an offence in the king's forest, with relation to his venison, and shaB be attainted of the same, he shaB be at the mercy of the king for loss of his eyes and of his viriBty. But he who shaB be guUty of an offence hi the king's forests, as to vert, whether by cutting down wood, or by cutting down branches, or by digging turf, or by rooting up heather, or by cutting brushwood, or by making assart, or new pourpresture by hedge or ditch, or by removal of a mBl, or of a water-course, or of a sheep-cote, or of other houses, or by reaping or making hay beyond his hedges or ditches, shaB be amerced by the long out of his own money, unless he shaB have the king's verderers or foresters as his warranty for so doing. In Bke manner, they who carry bows or arrows, or who lead dogs without a couple through the king's forests, and shaB be attainted of the same, shaB be amerced by the king. It is also enacted, that view of forest shaB always be made every third year ; and in regard of forest, the several matters above-mentioned are to be seen to. Also, in regard, new assarts are to be viewed, and what old ones have been sown since the last regard, and with what corn or pulse they have been sown. Fresh assarts shaB be seized to the king's use ; if old assarts shall have been sown with wheat or with winter wheat, then each acre shall pay to the king twelvepence from the said crop ; and if they shaB have been sown with oats, barley, beans, peas, or any other pulse, then each acre shall pay to the king six-pence from the said crop. It is also deserving to be known, that in the time of king Henry, son of the empress MatBda, it had been allowed for ditches to be made within the boundaries of the forests instead of hedges.; and the said Henry enacted at Woodstock, that whoever should commit an offence against him as to his forests, relative to the venison therein, on the first occasion, safe sureties should be exacted of him ; if he should offend a second time, safe sureties were to be simBarly exacted of him ; " Fawning season.