The penalty of
poaching the King’s deer
or
The Fine of the White
Hart
King Henry III coming
to hunt in a forest (since called White Hart) in Dorsetshire, took several
deer. Finding a most beautiful and
goodly white hart there he spared it: but afterwards a gentleman of the County
called Thomas de Lynd, with others in his company, took and killed this white
hart. For which the King put a fine on
him and the whole County, called the White Hart Silver. [Henry Curzon, The universal library or
compleat summary of science (1712), 1:352]
The fine was still being paid into the Exchequer at the time
of Elizabeth I.
BLACKMOOR-VALE, the valley of the Cale river, on the mutual
border of Somerset and Dorset; south south-eastward from Wincanton toward
Sturminster. It is flanked by hill ranges, often 4 miles asunder; and has a
rich, tenacious, marshy soil, notable as pasture land, and for the vigorous
growth of oaks. It was originally called White Hart forest, from an incident in
a hunt by Henry III. Source: A vision
of Britain through time; online at: http://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/place/place_page.jsp?p_id=25968
Last decade of the
14th century (ca. 1395-1399) England or France
The Wilton Diptych
reverse - the White Hart
London, National
Gallery