“I went to Farmer Johnson’s,” replied the reeve, “and you will find upon inquiry that my horse has not been out of his stables for the last hour.  I myself have been loitering about Bess’s grange and farmyard, as your grooms will testify, for they have seen me.”

“Humph!” exclaimed Richard, “I suppose I must credit assertions made with such confidence, but I could have sworn I saw you ride off with the hag behind you.”

“I hope I shall never be caught in such bad company, sir,” replied the reeve, with a laugh.  “If I ride off with any one, it shall not be with an old witch, depend upon it.”

Though by no means satisfied with the explanation, Richard was forced to be content with it; but he thought he would address a few more questions to the reeve.

“Have you any knowledge,” he said, “when the boundaries of Pendle Forest were first settled and appointed?”

“The first perambulation was made by Henry de Lacy, about the middle of the twelfth century,” replied the reeve.  “Pendle Forest, you may be aware, sir, is one of the four divisions of the great forest of Blackburnshire, of which the Lacys were lords, the three other divisions being Accrington, Trawden, and Rossendale, and it comprehends an extent of about twenty-five miles, part of which you have traversed to-day.  At a later period, namely in 1311, after the death of another Henry de Lacy, Earl of Lincoln, the last of his line, and one of the bravest of Edward the First’s barons, an inquisition was held in the forest, and it was subdivided into eleven vaccaries, one of which is the place to which you are bound, Rough Lee.”

“The learned Sir Edward Coke defines a vaccary to signify a dairy,” observed Potts.

“Here it means the farm and land as well,” replied the reeve; “and the word ‘booth,’ which is in general use in this district, signifies the mansion erected upon such vaccary:  Mistress Nutter’s residence, for instance, being nothing more than the booth of Rough Lee:  while a ‘lawnd,’ another local term, is a park inclosed within the forest for the preservation of the deer, and the convenience of the chase, and of such inclosures we have two, namely, the Old and New Lawnd.  By a commission in the reign of Henry VII., these vaccaries, originally granted only to tenants at will, were converted into copyholds of inheritance, but—­and here is a legal point for your consideration, Master Potts—­as it seems very questionable whether titles obtained under letters-patent are secure, not unreasonable fears are entertained by the holders of the lands lest they should be seized, and appropriated by the crown.”

“Ah! ah! an excellent idea, Master Reeve,” exclaimed Potts, his little eyes twinkling with pleasure.  “Our gracious and sagacious monarch would grasp at the suggestion, ay, and grasp at the lands too—­ha! ha!  Many thanks for the hint, good reeve.  I will not fail to profit by it.  If their titles are uncertain, the landholders would be glad to compromise the matter with the crown, even to the value of half their estates rather than lose the whole.”