Beinecke MS 89                                                          England, 1562
Carta de foresta, etc.

     1. ff. 1r-9v blank; f. 10r    [Title page:] Here begynnethe the Booke
     named Carta Foreste. 1562. [ff. 10v-13v blank; text ff. 14r-77v;
     running title on f. 14r:] Forest. What thing dothe make a forest, and
     how a forest is made...[text:] The wourdes be. Omnes fforeste etc. Now
     it is to be seen what thing is a fforest...and what thinges do make a
     forest, and who may make a fforest...[f. 77v] the lawe will suffer him
     after the quantitie of his tenure or grant to us to witt.

          A collection of hunting and forestry laws that predates but is
     similar to those published by John Manwood, A Brefe Collection of the
     Lawes of the Forest (London, 1592) and A Treatise and Discourse of the
     Lawes of the Forrest...(London, 1598). The writer of MS 89 has left
     certain portions blank (e. g., ff. 71v, 73r-v) perhaps intending to
     make later additions. The arrangement of the contents is as follows:
     Forest, Disaforestacion, Justices, Sommons, Sessions, Purpresture,
     Assarte Waste, Disafforestacion, Purraylley, Regardours, Regarde,
     Distresse, Forresters, Swanymote, Attachementes, Verdor, Agistement,
     Pawnage, Fforfeyture, Chasing, Enditementes, Fynes, Rawnsom,
     Abiuracion, Beastes, Noysaunce, Hawkes, Bees, Hony, Forester of fief,
     Chiminage, Outelawrye, Suerties, Plees, Verte, Venyson, A warren;
     Swanimote: The Charge of the Swanymotte, For the verte, For the
     venyson (2 sections). The material on ff. 74r-78v is another version of
     that found in Beinecke MS 88, ff. 46v-57v.

     2. ff. 78r-85v    Collection of extracts, in Latin, all concerning laws
     of forest. Includes: (ff. 78v-80v) Assisa fforeste [SR, v. 1, pp. 243-
     45]; (ff. 82v-84v) Statuta de addicionibus fforeste tempore Edwardi
     primi anno Regni sui xxiiij^^to [sic] [SR, v. 1, pp. 147-49].

          Paper (watermarks: unidentified pot), ff. i (contemporary
     parchment stub) + xiv (i and ii glued together) + 72 (contemporary
     foliation; modern foliation includes paper flyleaves) + xvi (xv and xvi
     glued together) + 1 (contemporary parchment stub), 300 x 215 (215 x
     128) mm. Written in ca. 29 long lines; frame-ruled in ink, with an
     additional vertical line in left margin to form column for annotations.
          I-VI^^12.
          Written in a well formed chancery hand by a single scribe (see
     below).
          Binding: s. xvi. Endleaves reinforced with vellum, two leaves
     originally pasted to each board. Sewn on five single, tawed skin thongs
     laced into paste boards rounded on the outside of the spine edge.
     Beaded endbands sewn on leather or cane cores but not laced to boards.
     The spine is square, with traces of adhesive. Covered in dark brown
     calf, blind-tooled with a triple line border and a small central
     ornament. Two ribbon fastenings, now wanting. Leather broken at joint,
     sewing reinforced.

          Written in England in 1562 by John Thatcher, who wrote an
     inscription on f. 1r: "Leonardus danet emitor/ a me Johanne Thatcher/
     Londinensi vicesimo primo/ die mensis martij anno domini/ .1562./
     Precio xxs." Collection of Reginald Rawdon Hastings, Esq. (Historical
	Manuscripts Commission, Report on the Manuscripts of the Late Reginald
	Rawdon Hastings, v. 1 [London, 1928] p. 432; on the Hastings family and
	collection, see Guide to British Historical Manuscripts at the
	Huntington Library [San Marino, 1982] pp. 78-81). Listed in Maggs Cat.
	577, no. 1476, with pl. 32 of f. 60v.; and Maggs Cat. 680 (1939), no.
	92, with plate of f. 60v facing title page. Purchased from H. P. Kraus
	by David Wagstaff (bookplate). Gift of Mr. and Mrs. David Wagstaff in 1944.

     Bibliography: Faye and Bond, p. 28, no. 89.
          M. G. Wynne, "The Wagstaff Sporting Books and Manuscripts,"
     Gazette 20 (1945) p. 11.

     Barbara A. Shailor