Turning to the landlord
of the hotel I asked, "What is the rule for holding the Court?
_When_ is it held?" _"Every forty days at twelve o'clock
at noon"_ was the reply. Reflection showed that so strange
a periodicity related to no notation of time with which we
are now in touch; it must belong to a system that has passed
away; but what could this be?
We are reminded by the date of the building we are in (1680),
that the room itself cannot have been used for much more than
two centuries for holding the Courts.
But there was a Verderer's Court held in several Forests
besides this Forest of Dean, long before the Stuart days.
The office itself is mentioned in Canute's Forest charter,
dating back nearly nine hundred years; and as at that period
about a third of England was covered with Forests, their influence
must have been very powerful; and local laws and customs in
them must have been far too firmly established for such a
man as Canute to alter them. He could only have confirmed
what he found; much as he confirmed the laws of nature as
they affected the tides at Southampton!
The next Forest Charter of national importance after Canute's,
is that of Henry III.
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