Page:Select historical documents of the Middle Ages.djvu/94

74 XII. What is the Forest of the King, and what the reason of this name.

M. The forest of the king is the safe dwelling-place of wild beasts; not of every kind, but of the kinds that live in woods; not in all places, but in fixed ones, and ones suitable for the purpose; whence it is called "foresta," the "e" being changed into " o," as if it were "feresta"—i.e., an abiding place for wild beasts.

D. Is there a forest of the king in each county?

M. No; but only in the wooded ones, where the wild beasts can have their lairs and ripe nourishment: nor does it matter to whom the woods belong, whether to the king, or to the nobles of the kingdom,—the wild beasts can none the less run around everywhere free and unharmed.

XIII. What is an Essart and why so called.

Essarts are commonly called what are named "occationes" in the works of Isidor; that is, when any groves or thickets in the forest, which are fit for pasture and for lairs, are cut down; after which same cutting down and tearing up by the roots, the land is dug up and cultivated. But if groves are so cut that anyone standing still, leaning against the remaining stump of an oak, or any other tree that has been cut down, shall, on looking round, perceive five that have been cut down, they consider this a wilderness (vastum)—that is, a place laid waste (vastatum)—so called by syncope. Such an excess, moreover, even if committed in one's own groves, is considered so grave that a man may never be acquitted of it by reason of his seat at the exchequer; but he ought rather to be pecuniarily punished according to the power of solvency of his rank. Thus far I have expounded, to some extent figuratively, what succint brevity has permitted, and what has at short notice offered itself to my mind, concerning the dignities of those sitting at the exchequer. But in these matters I have constituted for the munificence of the kings no bounds of which they may not overstep; they are all inclined, moreover, on account of the grace entrusted to them to