Note 929 — MAGNA CARTA. (continued 5)

This is implied in the terms of Stephen’s Oxford Charter. An example of an act of afforestation by Henry is given in Select Pleas, 45, which shows how “a district could be afforested in a moment by the mere word of the monarch; it took centuries to free it from the royal dominion.” See Edinburgh Review, vol. cxcv. (1902), p. 459. Even the Forest Charter (cc. 1 and 3) admitted the Crown’s right to afforest woods on its own demesne—reserving, indeed, common of pasture to those with legal rights thereto.