48
THE DEER OF EPPING FOREST.
In connection with hunting as formerly enjoyed in the forest, it
may be noted that lands in this as in other counties were often held
of the king by the tenure of providing or taking care of hounds and
hawks, or furnishing bows, spears, etc., when the king came to hunt
in the neighbourhood.
A few such instances may be here cited. It appears from an inqui-
sition of the time of Henry III. (Harl. MS., Brit. Mus., No. 5,172,
p. 33) that one Baldwin Fillot held certain land at Ardeley valued at
40s. by the serjeanty of taking care of a hawk. In 1284, a tene-
ment in Woodham Mortimer, Essex, was held by one Hardekyn by
the tenure of bringing up a puppy hound for the king, and keeping it
till fit to run:—"per serjeantiam ad nutriendam unam brachiettam
[literally, a bitch puppy] domini Regis . . . et custodiendi quousque
habilis fuerit ad currendum."
About the same date William de Reynes held two carucates2 of
land at Boyton, in the parish of Finchingfield, by the tenure of keep-
ing five hounds for the king.
Ralph Picot held one carucate of land at Saling (1284) by the ser-
jeanty of keeping a hawk for the king, the latter finding maintenance
for three horses, three men, and three hounds; and the said Ralph
Picot was to mew the said hawk at his own expense.
In 1304, the manor of White Roding was held by the service of
keeping two falcons for heron hawking, and a dog trained to make a
heron rise (probably a water spaniel), for the king's use.
Other tenures of a similar nature might be cited, but these will
suffice by way of illustration.
One of the earliest documents in existence relating to Epping
Forest is a roll in the Cottonian Library of the British Museum of
the latter part of the thirteenth, or beginning of the fourteenth, cen-
tury, which contains a list of foresters, verderers, woodmen, regardors,
and free and customary tenants of the various manors within the
Forest of Essex.3
There is also amongst the royal rolls in the British Museum one
of the time of Henry VIII. (Roy. Rolls, 14, B. xxxvi.), containing
draft rules for the taking and distribution of deer in the Forest. It
is not perfect, wanting the commencement, but what has been
2 Derived from caruca, a chariot, which, in mediaeval Latin, denoted "a plough," and passed
into the French charrue, from which was also borrowed in Ireland the form carewe and carue ;
hence it commonly denoted a ploughland. Dugdale states (Monast. Aug., vol. ii., p. 107) that in
an English charter of Richard I. a carrucate is declared to consist of sixty acres.
3 Cotton, Chart XIII., 5. This roll is attached to the Compotus Roll of the collectors of the
King's wool in Essex.