Cheshire has the great distinction of possessing two Forest Charter
Horns held by cornage tenure, and these are still in existence.
_The Wirral Horn._--The Hundred of Wirral was mainly divided between
the Church and the Palatinate barons. The latter not being resident,
the natives were lawless and turbulent; added to which the district was
specially liable to incursions from sea-rovers. To reduce the natives
to obedience, and as a matter of precaution, Ranulph de Meschines,
the third Earl of Chester, about 1121, destroyed such boundaries of
property as existed and planted the whole as a forest, so that “From
Blacon Point to Hilbre a squirrel might jump from tree to tree”; as the
old Cheshire rhyme has it.
The office of chief forester he bestowed upon Alan Sylvester, together
with the manors of Storeton and Puddington, to be held by the tenure
of blowing a horn, or causing it to be blown, at the “Gloverstone,”
Chester, on the morning of every fair-day, to indicate that the tolls
payable on all goods bought or sold in the city, or within sound of
that horn, during the fair, belonged to the Earl and his tenants there.
After 250 years the citizens of Chester found the forest and its
freebooters such a nuisance (for, so far from checking marauders, the
forest, as a hiding-place, encouraged them), that they complained to
the Black Prince, and begged that he would get his father to abolish it.
In 1376-7, the last year of Edward III.’s reign, the district was
disafforested. The horn and its rights had passed, by marriages of
female heirs, to the Bamvilles, and then to the Stanleys of Hooton
Hall. They continued as titular foresters as late as of 7 Henry VI.
The horn is thus described:--16¾ in. convex, 13¾ in. concave, 9½ in.
wide at the mouth, 7 in. in the middle, tapering to 2½ in. at the
mouthpiece. The colour is yellow to light brown, with blue or black
spots or flakes. It was in the possession of Sir John Stanley-Errington
until his death in 1896.
_The Delamere Horn._--What we now call the Forest of Delamere was
originally the two forests of Mara and Mondrem, extending, roughly
speaking, over all the lands between the rivers Weaver and Gowy. Mara
was on the Mersey side, and Mondrem on the Nantwich side.
The land was afforested immediately after the Conquest, though the
Saxon owner was, for a time, allowed to keep his estate in it. About
1123 Ranulph de Meschines, third Earl of Chester, added to the
forest some waste lands and the villa or township of Kingsley, and
conferred on Ranulph de Kingsley the forestry rights to be held in
grand serjeantry, and gave him a horn in token of his rights as master
forester. It is worth noting that the horns of Wirral and Delamere were
_both_ given, and at the same period, by this third Earl of Chester.
But it is important to note that the office of master forester was not
altogether paramount. Certain other rights belonged to the families of
Grosvenors, Weavers, and Mertons; and the rights in the two forests
were often kept separate and distinct. Finally, however, the whole of
the forest rights were vested in the family of Done of Utkinton, and in
1617 James I. came “a-hunting” in the forest of Delamere and knighted
John Done, who attended him as _chief forester_ and _bow bearer_. Sir
John died in 1629, and the male line of Dones came to an end. Through
the female line the horn and forest rights descended to the Crewes and
Ardernes, and then to the present Earl of Haddington, who married Miss
Arderne in 1854.
The horn is a beautiful black colour and strongly curved. It is 14 in.
on outside curve, but it is only 5 in. across from mouthpiece to mouth.
Its greatest width is 1¾ in. at the mouth, and ¾ in. at the other end.
The mouthpiece seems of silver gilt, but there is no sign of the other
two “golden” bands with which pictures and old documents show it was
embellished.
_Forest of Macclesfield._--The third great forest of Cheshire was that
of Macclesfield, which was in existence before Domesday survey.
The office of hereditary master forester of the forests of Leek and
Macclesfield was held by the Davenports of Davenport by a grant from
Hugh Cyvelioc, Earl of Chester (1160).
Now the original grant, as in the case of Mara and Mondrem, did not
prevent subordinate rights being granted, and there were no less than
eight sub-foresters who exercised rights down to the sixteenth century.
One of these foresterships belonged to the manor of Taxal, which was
held by the Downes of Sutton Downes and Taxal. According to depositions
about the year 1720, it is said of Reginald Downes, the then owner:--
“That hee when ye King came a hunting allways rowsed ye stagg, and
when ye King came to ye forest Mr. D. held ye King’s stirrup and ye
L’d Darby held _his_ stirrup; and that the L’d Darby, instead of
actually holding ye stirrup, put his strop or whip and held it towards
ye stirrup while Mr. Downes mounted.
“That the said Mr. Downes had informed this deponent that he held his
land by the blast of a horn on Midsummer Day, and paying a pepper-corn
yearly; and that once, about 63 or 64 years agoe, this deponent was
with the said Mr. Downes when he blowed his horn at Windcather (a
range of high hills above Taxal) on that occasion.”
Another deposition states that the horn required “three blasts.” No
special horn seems to have existed.