The forest had a huge staff of officers. First was a multitude of subordinates; foresters--who, if they kept ale-houses in the Regard, and encouraged folk to drink therein, committed a special crime called _Scotale_--agistors, woodwards, keepers, verminers, sub-verminers, and what not. These haled trespassers before the Court of Attachments, which was held every forty days. In command of them were the verderers, constituting, with representatives from the forest townships, the Court of Swainmote, which met thrice a year for (_inter alia_) the trial of the more important offences. Judgment on its findings was given at the Court of Justice Seat, held but once in the three years, under the presidency of a Lord Chief Justice in Eyre of the Forest. There were but two--one for the north, the other for the south of the Trent; and inasmuch as this officer was commonly some great noble--"A man," says my Lord Coke, with a touch of irony, "of greater dignity than of knowledge of the laws of the forest"--some skilled professional folk were joined with him in the commission. The last Court of Justice Seat was held in 1670 by the Earl of Oxford. It was a mere form: the last but one (in 1635) had created a fine pother by its exactions. Offences were either trespasses _in Vert_ or trespasses _in Venison_. The Vert (= green) was of course the cover; and the destruction thereof was called _Waste_, while _Assart_ was stubbling it up to make ploughland: and _Purpestre_ (a most grievous business) was building on or enclosing part of the forest. (As late as the reign of Charles I., Sir Sampson Darnell was heavily fined for erecting a windmill on his own ground in Windsor Chase). Moreover, Vert might be _Over Vert_ or _Hault-Bois_, or it might be _Nether-Vert_ or _Sous-Bois_, according as it was underwood or not; and in either case it was _Special Vert_ if it bore fruit, such as pears, crabs, hips, and haws, whereon the deer might feed. Venison, as lawyers understood it, was composed of Beasts of Forest--to wit, the hart, the hind, the hare, the boar, and the wolf--and Beasts of Chase. A Chase, which was like a park, but was not enclosed, might be held by a subject; but every forest was likewise a chase and a warren, and the beasts of chase were the buck, the doe, the martern, and the roe. These were described with wondrous detail. The hart--"the most stately beast which goeth on the earth, having as it were a majesty both in its gait and countenance"--was in his first year a Calf, in his second a Broket, in his third a Spayad, in his fourth a Staggard, in his fifth a Stag, and in his sixth a Hart. If he escaped the pursuit of king or queen he became a Hart Royal, which no subject might molest.