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Woods belonging to the Crown, and then reafonable Sa-tisfaction, without Imprifonment, ihould be accepted.

All Writs and Attachments were returnable to them,as well relating to the Pleas of the Crown as other,thro’ all their Lands and Fees, and no Sheriff, Bai-liff, or Officer, Ihould execute any fuch there, unlefsin Default of the Cuftos and Canons, and they to haveand hold Leets, and Lawdays, and Cognizance of allPleas betwixt their Tenants, as well of Trefpafles andContrafts, as others. And laflly, They were to haveand hold Wards, Reliefs, Efcheats, Forfeitures, and o-ther Profits, Iflues, and Emoluments whatfoever, withintheir own Fees, from all their Tenants, which mightappertain to the Crown, as if the Tenants did hold ofthe Crown or others in Capite.

CAP, V.

W E come now to treat of the mod Noble and II-luftrious Order of the Garter 5 which, if we confi-der either its Antiquity, or the Noblenefs ofthe Perfbnages, that have been enroll’d, it excels andputvies all other Inftitutions of Honour in the wholeWorld. It owes its Original, as is confeffed on allHands, to Edward III. King of England and France ; yet asto the Occafion, there are feveral Opinions which weIhall reClifie. The vulgar and more general is, that theGarter of Joan, Countefs of Salisbury, dropping cafuallyoff as Ihe danced in a folemn Ball, King Edward Hoop-ing took it up from the Ground, whereupon fome ofhis Nohles fmiling, as at an amorous AClion, and heobferving their fportive Humour, turned it off with aReply in French, Honi foit cjui mal y penfe ; but withaladded, in difdain of their Laughter, That fhortly theyJhould fee that Garter advanced to fo high an Honour and Re-nown as to account themfelves happy to wear it.

. upon Examination of this Tradition, let othersjudge what Credit it bears to eftablifh its Belief; for§ir John Froifjart, the only Writer of the Age that treats

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