The Forests and Deer Parks of the County of Somerset.
By the Rev. W. H. P. Greswell. (Barnicott and Pearce, Taunton. 10s. 6d. net.)—Soinersetshire was a land of forests and parks, differing so far from its neighbour Devon, though this was not without them. There was Exmoor Forest, lying, it must be remembered, within the Somersetehire borders, and at one time covering 80,000 acres. Other forests were at North Petherton, Mendip, and Selwood. Parks there were without number; of the seven hundred which were counted in the sixteenth century throughout Eng- land, this county had more than a proper share. The Bene- dictines of Glastonbury had four deer parks all within four miles of their house. And to be near a forest was no small misfortune, especially in the days of the Angevin Kings. Forest grievances seem to have had a climax in the days of Henry H., though they lasted for centuries after. Charles L, always driven by the res angusta to make himself hated by his people, tried to revive the system when it had almost perished. A jury of verderers and other forest officers in 1635 found the whole county of Essex to be within the bounds of the forest of Havering, and a complaisant Judge, French, C. J., held that the finding was good law. What forestation meant may be read at large in Mr. Greswell's learned book. He has collected a great mass of curious information about the laws, privileges, and customs of the forests. That it was no easy matter to keep the Royal property in deer and timber intact may be readily imagined. Poachers of no mean degree—a Dean of St. Paul's and an Abbot of Athelney—appear among the offenders, and timber was always a ready prey. Sharp remedies had to be applied. " Waste " of timber was punished by the summary process of forfeiture of the holding. "If any one," Mr. Greswell tells us, "standing or resting upon a felled oak or other tree could look around and count five trees cut down it was waste." This is a very interesting book, for which all students of social history should be grateful 4, Mr. Greswell
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