y of "the Severn and Wye Company,"
on the west side of the Forest, has not been materially altered.

CHAPTER XIII.

The deer of the Forest, and its timber, plants, birds, ferns, and early
allusions to the Forest deer--The Court of Swainmote, by which they were
preserved--Act of 1668 regarding them--Reports of the Chief Forester in
Fee and Bowbearer, and Verderers, in 1788, respecting the deer--Mr.
Machen's memoranda on the same subject--Their removal in 1849--The birds
of the Forest--Unforestlike aspect of the Forest, now, compared with its
former condition--Successive reductions of its timber--Its oldest
existing trees described--Present appearance of the young woods--Table of
the Timber Stock, from time to time, during the last 200 years--An
account of the rarer plants and ferns.

The earliest allusion to deer in the Forest is, as might be expected,
coeval with its being constituted a royal domain. William the Conqueror
is said to have been hunting here when he first heard of the taking of
York by the Danes in August, 1069. In Henry I.'s reign the deer were so
numerous as to make the tithes of them worthy of being given as a royal
present by that king to the Abbey of Gloucester, which city, says
Geraldus, was supplied with venison from the Forest of Dean; and the
frequent visits of King John to Flaxley Abbey and to the Castle of St.
Briavel's during the latter years of his reign, arose probably from the
abundant sport the neighbourhood afforded him.

The deer of the King's forests were preserved in ancient times with the
greatest care by the execution of certain laws, administered by a
Swainmote Court, which was regulated by officers called Verderers,
Foresters, and Agisters, who disposed of all cases in which deer were
killed without warrant: not that any man was to lose either life or limb,
as formerly, for so doing; but he was to be heavily fined if he had
property, or, if not, to be imprisoned a year and a day, and be then
released, if he could find sufficient securities, or be abjured the
realm. A curious exception existed, however, in the case of any
archbishop, bishop, earl, or baron summoned to the King, and by the way
passing through a royal forest, when it was lawful for him to "take and
kill one or two deer, by the view of the Forester, if he be present, or
else shall cause one to blow an horne for him that he seem not to steal
the deer." At the fawning season, or "fence-month," as it was cal