BECAUSE demised also above written the sum of £46 16s. 8d. But he answers for £6 for the Farm of the Agistment of the LITTLE FOREST there so demised to Hugh Merrvin by Indenture, etc.

Sum £148.

Sum of Allowances and Liveries, £161 178. 73d.

And he owes £4,278 3s. 11ąd.

OUT OF WHICH there is allowed to the said Accountant £6 13s. 2d., for the expences of the Audit of the Receiver, Deputy Steward, and other Officers and Ministers surveying during the time of the Audit, holden this year at Brecon, in the month of October, in the 30th year of the said now King Henry the 8th, etc., etc., etc.

AND (inter alia) there are allowed to the aforesaid Accountant as for so much money charged upon the same Survey on the Title of the Great Farm to £94 3s. 4d. per annum for the FARM OF THE AGISTMENT OF THE GREAT FOREST of the Lord the King, so lately demised to the Tenants and Inhabitants of the Lordship of Breckon aforesaid, BECAUSE the aforesaid tenants and inhabitants together with the tenants, resiants, and inhabitants within the Parish of Devynnok within the same fforest claim to have free passage in and through all the Forest aforesaid without rendering or paying any thing for the same, And also Herbage and Pasture with their Beasts and Cattle in the same fforest, Rendering to the aforesaid Lord the King for every Kyfryve ld., and for every other Beast under the Kyfry ve 1d., IN MANNER as by the Charter of King Richard the 3rd, late King of England, dated at Westminster the 14th day of May in the 1st year of his Reign made for free passage more fully appears, and by the aforesaid Lord the now King Henry the 8th confirmed and corroborated in these words :

[Henry the 8th by the Grace of God, King of England and France, Defender of the faith, Lord of Ireland and on Earth the Supreme Head of the Church of England. To ALL TO WHOM these present Letters shall come, Greeting, WE HAVE INSPECTED the Charter of the Lord, Richard, late King of England, our progenitor, made in these words.]

"RICHARD, by the Grace of God, King of England and France, and Lord of Ireland, To ALL and singular our stewards, Rangers, Forresters, Officers, Bailiffs, and Ministers of our Lordship of Brecknock in Wales and of our Great Forest who now are, and hereafter shall be, and to the rest of our faithful Subjects, to whom these present Letters shall come, Greeting.

"KNOW YE that we for certain urgent causes us especially moving, of our especial Grace and mere motion, have granted and given licence, for us and our heirs, as much as in us is, to our beloved and faithful Subjects, all and singular the tenants, resiants, and inhabitants, within the Parish of Devynnok, within our forest aforesaid, that as well they and every of them now tenants, resiants, and inhabitants, as all and singular those, who shall be tenants and inhabitants within the parish aforesaid, and every of their Ministers and Servants, who now are and who hereafter shall be, and also all other persons whomsoever, of what condition soever, they shall be, may hereafter for ever have ingress, passage, and egress for themselves, cattle, carriages, Goods, wares, and Merchandizes whatsoever throughout and within all our Forest aforesaid and every part thereof, and all the Limits aud Bounds of the same. And all and singular the Gates, Entries, paths, ways, causeways, and Bridges there wheresoever, whensoever, and as often-soever as any of them shall happen to go, return, travel, pass, go through, or have Business or to carry their Merchandizes, Wares, or Goods there through and within, as well the parts and places of the said Forest prohibited and fineable for life and limb as other the parts and places of the same Forest not prohibited and fineable, without the interruption, attachment, distress, impediment, caption, imprisonment, punishment, loss of life or of any of their limbs by any of the Officers or Ministers of us or of our heirs whomsoever there, to them or any of them for any of the premises, according to the Law and Custom of the Forest aforesaid, used to be imposed or attempted and without fine or forfeiture of their Goods, Wares, or Chattels, or any redemption whatsoever to us or to our aforesaid heirs by them or any of them in

that behalf to be there made, sustained, forfeited, rendered, or in any wise incurred deed (sic) without any custom, portage, pedage, or tribute, or any other thing or exaction whatsoever according to the custom of the Lordship or Forest aforesaid, to us or our heirs to be therefore due, or to all officers or Ministers whomsoever of us or of our aforesaid heirs to our use or of our heirs aforesaid or of any of them who shall have title or interest there through us or our heirs aforesaid to be therefore and thenceforth paid or rendered for ever.

"AND we will and grant that all and singular the same tenants, resiants, and inhabitants aforesaid who now are and hereafter shall be, and the servants and ministers aforesaid, and also all other persons whomsoever from all and singular Customs, portages, pedages, Tributes, and Exactions whatsoever to us or to our heirs aforesaid in any wise according to the custom of the Lordship or Forest aforesaid by any of them due or to be due, or from any of them to be hereafter demanded or claimed by any of the aforesaid Officers of the Lordship or Forest aforesaid, by reason of the premises against us and our heirs aforesaid and against all others whomsoever, shall be exonerated and for ever acquitted.

"AND we prohibit as much, as by our Royal Authority, We can prohibit and by these presents, We do firmly ordain and decree that no Justice, Steward, Ranger, Forester, Officer, Bailiff, or Minister of us or of our aforesaid heirs that now is or who shall be or of any others who shall hereafter have title or interest through us or our aforesaid heirs the same tenants, resiants, or inhabitants, who now are and who shall be, or their Servants or Ministers or any other persons whomsoever or any of them through or within as well the aforesaid parts and places of the said Forest, as is aforesaid prohibited and fineable as aforesaid, as through the other parts and places aforesaid of the same Forest and the Gates, Entries, paths, Ways, and Bridges aforesaid there, wheresoever, whensoever, or as often-soever as any of them shall henceforth chance or make it convenient to go, return, travel, ride, pass, go through, have business in, drive cattle or in any wise carry or convey their Goods, Wares, or Merchandize with their Wains, Carts, and Cattle on those occasions or any of them shall attach, impede, distrain, take, imprison, or in any wise punish, vex, or disturb, but shall permit every of them therefore to enjoy firm peace. NOR shall hereafter take or claim, or presume or attempt to take or claim any customs, pedage, portage, fines, customs, or tribute, or other things or exactions whatsoever on the occasions aforesaid or any of them according to the custom of the Lordship or Forest aforesaid heretofore in that behalf hitherto used and had due or pertaining or accustomed to be levied from the tenants, resiants, or inhabitants, or their servants or ministers aforesaid or any of them, or any person or persons whomsoever under pain of imprisonment of his Body and forfeiture of his Goods at our pleasure, any customs, rights, ordinances, or usages whatsoever heretofore there had, used, ordained, accustomed, or approved to the contrary, or altho' express mention of the certainty of the premises or of any of them in these presents be not made, or any other matter, cause, or thing whatsoever in any wise notwithstanding. IN WITNESS whereof We have caused these our Letters to be made patent, WITNESS curself at Westminster the fourteenth day of May in the first year of our Reign."

[Now wE, the Charter aforesaid, and all and singular therein contained ratifying and approving the same for us and our heirs and successors as much as in us is do accept and approve, and to our trusty and beloved Subjects all and singular the tenants, resiants, and inhabitants within the aforesaid parish of Devynnok within our said Forest, who now are and who henceforth shall be by tenor of these presents, Do ratify and confirm, as the Charter aforesaid in itself reasonably testifieth. IN WITNESS whereof we have caused these our Letters to be made Patent, WITNESS ourself at Westminster the 17th day of May in the 30th year of our Reign.]

As by a certain Indenture of the said late King made and dated at Westminster the 17th day of Ffebruary in the first year of his reign for the rendering one penny for the Kyfryve by the aforesaid Lord the now King, confirmed and corroborated in these words:

[HENRY, the 8th, by the Grace of God, King of England and France, Defender of the faith, Lord of Ireland, TO ALL TO WHOM these present Letters shall come Greeting, We have inspected a certain Indenture between the Lord Richard, late King of England, our Progenitor of the one part, and all the tenants, Resiants, and Inhabitants of the Great Forest in the Lordship of Brecknock in Wales of the other part, and sealed with his privy Signet, as is said, and signed with his sign Manual, made in these words :-]

"THIS INDENTURE made bitwen the moste excellent and crysten prynce Richard, by the Grace of God Kyng of Englonde and Lord of Irelonde on the one p'tie, and all the Tenn'te Recyaunte, and Inhabytaunte of the Great Foreste in his Lordship of Brecknock in Wales on the other p'tie, wITNESSETH that where as our sayd sov'aigne Lorde at the humble supplicacion of the sayd Tenn'te Recyaunte and Inhabytauute there, and for the favor, ease, and well of all lyege people, of his especiall grace and by his gracious l'res patente, hath graunted free libertie and free passage to all his sayd Subjecte to passe and repasse through and by his sayd great Forest and in eny p'te thereof, as well on Horsebak and a fote, w't all manner of merchandizes as by the sayd l'res patente more pleynly it apperith AND WHERE also as the said Tenn'te Recyaunte and Inhabitannte w'thin the said Forest by the said supplicacion have desired of his said Highnes to have Water and Pasture for the feedyng of their Beste and Cattalle in Hilles Mounteyns and Valeys of the said Great Forest w'tonte any thyng paying therefor to his said Highnes, Our sayd Soveraigne Lord of hys most habundaunt grace and mercy ponderyng the poverty of hys said suppliaunte, and the great charges restyng upon them yerely unto his Highnes, hath graunted by these presente unto his said liegemen and suppliaunte fre lib'tie to have Water and Pasture in the said Mountaynes, Hilles, and Valeys of the said Forest for the norysshing of their Bestys and Cattall, PAYNG unto his Highnes for every polle of the said Bests and Catall a penny after the rate and computacion of KYFRYVE, knowen by usage and custume of the said Foreste and also to all the Inh'itante of the said Lordship of Breknok onely having any Bestys or Catell hauntyng the sayd Forest for Water and Pasture a penny for every polle after the rate and forme abovesaid. ALSO our sayd Soveraigne lord by thise presents com'aundeth all his officers beyng there as for the tyme to whome that longeth to sett and putt hys said Forest to ferme on Maye daye to him or them that grauntith most. Therefore, ordynate warnyng p'clamyd before at the High Cross in the Town of Breknok on the Markett Daye mmediatly before Maye Daye, takyng Surties of the Fermours thereof in hys Escheker at Breknok aforesaid, as the Custome thereof requyreth, AND in more strenght and wytnes of the grauntes abovesayd made by our sayd soveraigne Lord to the said Tenn'ts Recyaunte and Inhabitaunte there oure sayd soveraigne Lorde hath com'aunded hys secrete signett to these Indenture to be putt confermyng the same w't his gracious signe manuell geven at his Palace at Westmynster the XIXth day of Februarie, the first yere of his reigne."

[AND this to all whom it may concerne, WE do make knowne by these presents. WITNESS Ourself at Westminster, the 17th day of May in the 30th year of our Reign.— OLIVER.]

That is to say, in the allowance of part of the sum of £94 3s. 4d. for the ffarm of the Great Forest aforesaid over and above £7 4. 8. parcel of the same sum received by the aforesaid Accountant for approvement that is in the Kyfryve made within the same Forest and no further upon his Oath upon this Account and so in decrease as well by virtue of the Act of Parliament as by virtue of the aforesaid Grants this year £86 18. 8.

"And he owes £4177 1. 14."

CAP. II.

THE HILL CAUSES, A.D. 1784.

From the date of the lease of William and Mary down to 1805, the Morgan family were by successive leases the tenants of the Agistment of the Great Forest under the Crown. The family of Williams of Penpont had much to do with renting the Forest Mills, and Mr. Johnes of Havod was for a time lessee of the Forest mines, but neither were ever lessees of the Forest Agistment.

This long tenure in the same family insensibly produced a feeling of semi-ownership; and it will be remembered in the Welsh Penkelly Manor case, that Mr. Thynne Home Gwynne was not without some difficulty convinced that the Crown was the owner, and himself only the steward. And a feeling of this kind grows among one's neighbours; and it has happened to myself, from the similarity of Christian names, and from being for a long time agent to my father, whom in his old age the tenants seldom saw, to be deemed the actual owner of some of my father's lands, and I so figure in the modern Domesday book to the extent of several hundred acres in the Counties of Hereford and Monmouth.

And in the Manor of Hay, where the Morgan family were also lessees of the Crown Manor of Haia Wallensis, we find C.M. carved, doubtless by some too-zealous agent, on one of the large stones on the hill; and similarly in the Great Forest itself, on the large rock marking the division on the mountain between the Forest land and the Hamlet of Modrydd, the letters C. M. are boldly cut.

And apart from long possession of the Agistment of the Great Forest by successive leases, the Morgan family were actually the owners of the Brecon Manor in the Lordship of Brecon, adjoining; and their farmers and undertenants gradually assumed similar power, and claimed to exercise the same rights over one as the other. Apparently to such an extent had this gone, that according to the statement in the case annexed, It is with us a matter of doubt whether the Great Forest is at this time mediately or immediately in the Crown." And besides, it had been the practice of the Crown to grant elsewhere in the county fee-farm tenancies-practically freeholds-at small fixed rents, to various persons, like Usk Mill at Brecon, the Honddu Mill, and Pipton Manor.

However, some of the claims made by the foresters or farmers under the Morgan family were considered by the old Forest tenants as exactions and "strange innovations," and were not acquiesced in by them; and the bold stroke was taken to have a case prepared, and submitted to counsel, so far as regarded the important lime-burning customs.

EXP'TE: TENANTS OF THE MANOR OF BRECON.

CASE, A.D. 1781.

On the Great Forest of Brecon it hath been a Custom, continued down from Time immemorial, for persons from the neighbourhood, as well Cottagers as Farmers, to erect sev'l Kilns for burning of Limestone, which there abounds in large Quarries, into Lime. These Lime Burners sell the Lime upon the spott, and supply all without Distinction from wheresoever they be, who think proper to come for it. The Forest is a large Tract of Hilly Land, or mountain, in the Lordship of Brecon, commonable with all manner of Beasts by a Great Number of Farmers under a certain Rent of so much p. Head, for

particular Cattle, to the Lord, now Charles Morgan, Esq. There has been never an Instance of making any acknowledgem't to the Lord or any Else for the Liberty to erect Kilns and to raise burn and vend Lime in the manner before mentioned, but being for the Increase and Incouragement of Husbandry, both from that and the usage it hath always been deemed a Thing of universal Right and that as well strangers as Tenants thereof might go there to fetch it, and while they stop at the Kilns, suffer their Horses to go about grazing at a Convenient Distance, without making themselves liable to any payment to the Lord. And it is usual for those who are far off to go towards Lime in the Evening, arriving at the Kilns in the dusk, and turn out their Horses upon the Hill till the dawn, when they load and return.

Such has been the uniform and uninterrupted Practice and usage untill the Present summer, when one John Williams having farmed the Profits of the forest has thought proper to work strange Innovations. He makes a Demand upon all who come there not having Right of Common, of forest Tax, double what the Commoners pay for their Horses, and accordingly has distrained upon a great Number of Horses in the course of the summer coming for Lime and kept them impounded till the Owners paid him such Forest Tax, with the charges of Distress. The way to these Kilus is from the Great use of it made a deep beaten Road and tho' it leads only to those Places, in a manner looked upon as a Common Highway. And it seemeth this Forester has had the Modesty hitherto not to distrain upon any Horses that are strictly kept to the Road and stop'd close to the Kilns ; and therefore to Obtain his End with better safety, watches such as are suffered to stray a little off the Road or from the Kilns when he makes the Distress, but he holds it to be his right and often threatens to distrain as soon as they enter the Common, and whether they cut a blade of Grass or not.

Therefore Your opinion is desired to the following Querries:

Whether from the immemorial usage any persons may not Erect Kilns, dig up and sell lime to whomsoever they please without making Acknowledgment to the Lord, at least have not the Tenants of the Manor and Commoners a Right so to do for Manuring their own Lands?

Can this Farmer of the Profits of the Great Forest justify distraining the Horses of such as are not Commoners in the manner before mentioned, particularly on Account of their being suffered to graze about the Kilns with the Pack saddles on, and if so, as Trespassers, or how otherwise?

And if the going about and grazing gives him such power, Yet can he lay hold of such Horses as are alltogether kept upon the direct Road, and during their stay are tied up as close as conveniently can be at the Kilns?

A Person having no Right of Common sent his servant to Lime; the man arriving in the Dusk suffered his Horses as Customary to graze about till the dawn, and in the morning Jno. Williams met the man, and asked him if his Master had sent any money for Forest Tax on Account of his Horses grazing on the Hill, who answered in the negative, but that if there was any due his Master wo'd pay it. Williams replied that wo'd not do, and was proceeding to take up the Horses, whereupon the man said he wo'd not let the Horses go to pound, and desired to know the demand, upon which he was told 2s. 9d., the same he directly tendered and were refused, and the Horses were lead to pound. Supposing his Right to distrain to be Good, Yet co'd he justify detaining the horses after the Tender? It is doubtful which was first, the Actual distress or the Tender; will that make any difference?

Jno. Wms is the Undertenant of a Mr. P. M. (Philip Morgan), who is the Original Farmer of the Forest, and who generally attends him on this Business to give his aid and Counsel.

On the last Occasion, as well as on most others, Mr. M. was the most active, and it was he who Conversed and answered for Jno. Williams, and the Tender was not particularly made to him; but as the other was present, and as Mr. M. is used to