Page:VCH Herefordshire 1.djvu/363

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DOMESDAY SURVEY we find the ban of the king's forest. On the opposite side of Archenfield it had similarly encroached on the bishop's manors of Didley and Stane/" which were dangerously near the royal forest of Treville. Of such importance was the king's hunting in this upland wood that his villeins at Kingstone were said to owe no service but that of carrying to Hereford the proceeds of the chase."^ The borough itself had to supply beaters when the king went hunting in the wood."^ The Norman barons hunted like their lord, to replenish their kitchens, doubtless, as well as for pleasure. In the ravaged manors on the Welsh March lands once under the plough were already overgrown with wood and produced nothing but game. This was the case with a group of manors ' in Marcha de Walls,' where there had once been work for six-and-thirty ploughs.^^* Of Harewood at the head of the Dore valley we read that it had similarly lapsed.^" Its lord, Gilbert Fitz Turold, had ' a great wood for hunting in ' at ' Walelege,' where stood his fortified house on a ' wasted manor.' At ' Ber- noldune ' all was ' waste ' but the haiae in a great wood, where its lord captured what he could (fol, 187). These hays {haiae), in which wild animals were caught, are frequently mentioned ; at Lingen there were three for capturing roedeer {capreoHs) ; ^" at ' Ruiscop,' one in a great wood ; one, we have seen, at ' Bernoldune,' and several others. From other sources we learn that the lords of Kilpeck held Little Taynton, Gloucestershire, by the service of ' keeping the hay of Hereford.'"' Pannage for fattening the herds of swine on the mast in the woods was always a source of profit. At Leominster the villein who had ten pigs gave one de pasnagio ; at Pembridge there was woodland enough for 160 swine in a good season [sifructijicasset). The connexion between the woodlands and the salt industry at Droit- wich is illustrated by the entry on Fladbury (Worcestershire), where the bishop of Worcester is stated to receive all the produce of the wood in (i) hunting, (2) honey,"' and (3) fuel for the Droitwich salt-pans (' lignis ad Salinas de Wich '). In Herefordshire the 5;-. received for the wood at Marcle were given for 60 mitts of salt at Droitwich,"' and 5J. were similarly appor- tioned from the 22J-. received for the woodland at Leominster, and produced 30 mitts.^^" The 25 mitts of salt to which Cleeve-cum- Wilton was entitled T.R.E. may therefore possibly have been lost when King William took into his forest a portion of that manor. The system is explained in the entry on Bromsgrove, the first royal manor in Worcestershire, which, although possessing salt-pans, &c., of its own at Droitwich, had to send thither 300 cart-loads of wood (for the furnaces) in order to obtain thence 300 mitts of salt. One may suggest that on distant manors it was found better in practice "' ' De his ix hidis . . . altera pars in defensione regis.' And at Madley, a bishop's manor, a little farther north, the wood was ' in defensu regis.'

  • " ' Ibi silva nomine Triveline nullam reddens consuetudinem nisi venationem. Villani T.R.E. ibi

manentes portabant venationem ad Hereford, nee aliud servitium faciebant.' The Empress Maud granted to Miles, Earl of Hereford, in 1 141, 'haias Hereford et forestam de Trivela.' "' ' Quando rex venatui instabat de unaquaque domo per consuetudinem ibat unus homo ad stabilitionem in silva.' In Shropshire thirty-six men were similarly supplied by Shrewsbury. "* ' In his wastis terris excreverunt silvae in quibus isdem Osbernus venationem exercet et inde habet quod capere potest ; nil aliud' (fol. 1 863). ^'* ' Haec terra in silvam est tota redacta ; wasta fuit et nil reddit.' "» Fol. 260. "' Cf. n. 82, above. "« From the wild bees. '" ' Silva reddens v sol. qui dantur ad Wich pro Ix mittis sails.' "" ' Ex his dantur v sol. ad ligna emenda in Wich et habentur xix mittae salis inde.' 295