' A copy of this document in the Record Commissioners' edition of
the Statutes, vol. i, p. 243, is said to be taken from the Lansdowne
MSS., vol. 480, fo. 19s ; but the reference is wrong. Both versions
are probably corrupt. Ruffhead's edition of the Statutes, vol. 10,
Appendix, p. 25, has a very inaccurate copy of the Cotton MS.
Rastall's and Cay's Abridgments have also versions of the articles.
THE FOREST LA WS AND COURTS. 73

ably signifies the Court of the Ministers^ — and the Court
of Attachments was anciently called the Woodmote, it
may be inferred that they both existed in some form
before the Conquest, and were afterwards incorporated
into the Norman System. Of the Ministers of the Forest
a more particular account will be found in the next
chapter. They were the chief warden or justice, with
assistant justices ; the steward, afterwards the hereditary
lord warden ; the sub-steward or lieutenant of the Forest ;
foresters, verderers, regarders, a ranger of the purlieus,
woodwards, and reeves ; the last two being offices of
Anglo-Saxon institution.^ There were also, in many
Royal Forests, King's agisters ; but except in the hun- Cotton
dreds of Tendring and Lexden in 1250, I have found no Duch.ofLanc.
notice of any in Waltham Forest ; because the Crown, pi. For. 1489.
for many years before the dissolution of the monasteries,
had no estates there.
The Forest Courts in no way interfered in questions Attachment
of right, between the lords of the Forest manors and i7°9!'^^
their tenants; or with the right of the former to hold
their Courts, so that they did not meddle with Forest waidns, 372.
