In 1194, Richard Coeur-de-Lion hunted a noble beast out of the forest of Sherwood into Barnsdale in Yorkshire, and there losing him, made proclamation "that no person should kill, hunt, or chase the said hart, but that he might safely return into the forest again." An animal thus honoured was called a Hart Royal Proclaimed, and in the 21st of King Henry VII., a man was indicted for taking so precious a life, but the case apparently went off for want of technical proof of proclamation. Your precise woodman talked of a Bevy of roes, a Richesse of marterns, a Lease of bucks. He said that a hart harboureth, whilst a buck lodgeth, and a hare was seated. He dislodged the buck, but he started the hare. He would tell you that the hart belloweth, the buck groaneth, the boar freameth; and whilst the hart had a Tail, the roe had a Single, the boar a Wreath, and the fox a Bush (not Brush be it noted) or Holy Water Sprinkle. Their amours (_e.g._ a fox went to clicketing), their young, their very excrements were dignified in a long array of special terms, the divisions and subdivisions of the deers' antlers being enough of themselves to gravel the tyro in woodcraft. The peace of those precious animals was elaborately safeguarded, and it was specially forbidden "to haunt the forest" during the _Fence Moneth_, which was fifteen days before and after Midsummer. Most forests were surrounded by Purlieus, that is, territory which had been disafforested. Officers called Rangers patrolled this debateable territory to drive back the errant deer, and whilst the Purlieu-man (namely, the freeholder therein) might hunt on his own lands, he must call off his dogs if the beast once touched the forest. And every three years there was a special Drift of the forest, which was a sort of census of the venison. A man taken _With the Manner_ (Main Ouverte), that is, in the act of doing for the deer, was attached without bail. The offender might thus be caught red-handed in four ways:--(1) in _Dog-Draw_ he was chasing a wounded beast with hounds; (2) in _Stable-Stand_ he was drawing his bow in ambush; (3) in _Back-Bare_ he was carrying off his quarry; (4) in _Bloudy-Hand_ he bore the red marks of his spoil. Divers statutes put a yet keener edge upon the common law, as that under Henry VII., whereby hunting in the forest at night with painted vizards was made a felony. And what of the dogs? The forest freeholders might keep mastiffs for the protection of home and homestead; but a Court of Regards was held every three years for their Lawing or Expeditation. Thereat your mastiff was made to place one of his paws upon a billet of wood, "then one with a mallet, setting a chisel of three inches broad upon the three claws of his forefoot, at one blow doth smite them clean off." Other dogs of any size were summarily banished the precincts.