FOREST.—It may be doubted whether the right of Forest was at any time carried among the Saxons to the extent which made it so hateful a means of oppression under the Norman kings; but there can be no question that it was one of the royalties. In every part of Germany the _bannum Forestae_ or _Forstbann_ was so[145], and even to this day is as much an object of popular dislike in some districts as it ever was among our forefathers. In countries which depend much upon the immediate produce of the soil for support, hunting is not a mere amusement to be purchased or rented by the rich as a luxury, but a very necessary means of increasing the supply of food; and where coal-mines have not been worked, the forest alone or the turf-heap can furnish the means of securing warmth, as indispensable a necessary of life as bread or flesh: we have seen moreover that it was essential to the comfort of a Saxon family to possess a right of masting cattle in the neighbouring woods. ----- Footnote 145: Eichhorn, Deut. Staatsr. i. 813, § 199. ----- In the original division of the lands large tracts of forest may have fallen to the king’s share, which he could dispose of as his private property. Much of the folcland also may have been covered with wood, and here and there may have lain sacred groves not included within the limits of any community[146]. It is not unreasonable to suppose that all these were gradually brought under the immediate influence and authority of the king; and that when once the royal power had so far advanced as to reduce the scír-geréfa to the condition of a crown officer, the shire-marks or forests would also become subject to the royal _ban_[147]. That very considerable forest rights still continued to subsist in the hands of the free men, in their communities, may be admitted, and is evidence of the firm foundation for popular liberty which the old Mark-organization laid. But even in these, the possession was not left totally undisturbed, and the public officers, the king, ealdorman and geréfa appear to have gradually made various usurpations valid. ----- Footnote 146: “Lucos et nemora consecrant.” Tac. Germ. ix. Footnote 147: As early as 825 we find questions of pasture contested by the swángeréfa as an officer of the ealdorman. Cod. Dipl. No. 219. The scírholt mentioned in this document would seem to have been the shire-forest or public wood of the county; hence probably a royal ban-forest, subject to the royal officer, the ealdorman. -----