what they had seen with their own eyes, that its barons are free, for their domains, of essarts (clearance-fines) of the forests. With whom we also agree; adding the reservation, that they may be called quit of those essarts which had been made before the day on which the illustrious King Henry I. bade farewell to human affairs. For if they were quit of all, whenever made or to be made, the barons would seem to be free with impunity, according to their own will and judgment, to cut down their woods in which the Royal forest consists; which they can, in fact, by no means do with impunity, unless the consent of the King or of the chief forester has first been gained. Nay, those who have their domicile in the forest, may not take from their own woods what they want for the necessary uses of their homes, unless by view of those deputed to guard the forest. But there are many who wish to prove by their arguments that no one, by reason of his seat at the exchequer, is free from these essarts. If any one at all of those sitting there should, by any misfortune, commit a fault against the King, for which he would merit to be punished with a pecuniary fine, he would not be freed from that punishment except by special mandate of the King. Since, therefore, a clearance is a fault committed against the forest of the King, he who thus errs, and on this account receives a penalty, ought not, as they say, to be acquitted unless by express mandate of the King. Now, although this reasoning is subtle and seems to some almost sufficient, it is to be said, in objection to it, that the penalty for clearance is fixed and common to those who err in this way; so that, namely, for the clearance of one acre of wheat land one shilling is paid; but for an acre in which oats are sown, six pence, by a perpetual law. Moreover, from these items a certain total sum arises, for which the sheriff is compelled to account to the exchequer; just as from the established two shillings or one from the different "hides" one sum arises which is called the common assessment. Since, therefore, in these respects, the essart has an express similitude with the common assessment, as has been said, it would seem as if the barons, not without justice, should be considered quit from the essarts, just as from the other common assessments. Likewise the authority, not to be despised, of custom and long usage is against them (the cavillers). For those whose memory is hoary call to mind that it was so in past times. I myself, who speak with thee, have, in modern times, looked upon Robert, Earl of Leicester, a discreet man learned in letters, and versed in matters of the law. He, while having an inborn virtue of mind, became also an emulator of his father's prudence: his industry examined into many matters under our Prince Henry the Second, whom neither fictitious prudence nor dissimulated folly deceives; so that, by the King's order, not only at