M. I congratulate thee since I see that thou hast held in memory as well the worth of what has been said, as the order of what is to be said. It remains, therefore, that I do not omit to satisfy thy wishes according to my powers.
XI. Concerning the Rents of woods.
After the account of the purprestures and escheats, there follows the account for wood-rents, very short and clear, under this tenor of words: "the same sheriff, or such another one N., renders account of 20£ from the rent of such a wood or forest of Northamptonshire; he has paid in the treasury and is quit." There are, however, some forests from which the tenth part of the fixed rents are paid to the head churches; so from Wiltshire and from Hampshire to Salisbury cathedral, but from Northamptonshire to Lincoln cathedral: the cause of which payment I have heard to be this, almost the whole or the greater part of what is paid for the forests comes from pleas and exactions; thus then, by giving the tenths, illicit gains seem to be to some extent redeemable. Of these, moreover, the accounts are made thus: "such or such a one renders account for 20£ from the rent of such a forest; in the treasury 18£"; and at the head of the next line below, thus: "and in fixed tithes to such a church 40s."; then at the end of that same line, a little apart from the rest of the writing, thus: "and is quit." Remark also that it has once been said to thee that all debts, and likewise those payments which shall have been made to the treasury, are to be placed apart from the rest of the writing; so that to the eye running over them and the mind assisting they may more readily occur; for summonses are made out for what is due, and quittances for what has already been paid. After the diligent account of the principal farm, the old or the new, and likewise after the account of the purprestures and escheats and of the wood-rents—all of which, as has been said, are paid on a yearly basis—there follows the account for the pleas and covenants; in which first, after a moderate space, a note is made in the middle of the line as to the justices to whom these belong.
