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and when the sunlit air is fragrant with
opening buds, is not readily forgotten.
But later on, when the air is languid with
the dropping mayflower, when the oak-
blossom hangs from its sheath of half-de-
veloped leaves, and the tracery of the
limbs is yet unveiled, when the young foli-
age of the beech, brilliant with imprisoned
light, casts the tenderest of shade, and the
uncurling fern yet leaves the vistas free to
display the witchery of broken lights on
stem and bough- with such a scene in
view, amidst

"The symphony of spring, the passion of the
""
groves,'

traordinary power to plant commonable | spring through such a woodland, when the land was neither lightly granted nor unat- silence is broken only by the babble of the tended by efficient safeguards. Its exer- brook or the plaintive cry of the lapwing, cise was strictly limited to the growth of oak for national purposes, and special clauses jealously guarded the rights of the commoners. The plantations were to be made very gradually; 2,000 acres were to be enclosed immediately (before 1700), but the remainder, 4,000 acres, at a rate not exceeding 200 acres in one year; the land was to be taken in every case where "it could be best spared from the commons and highways," and the plantations again thrown open to pasturage as soon as the trees were past damage by the deer and cattle. The whole amount of 6,000 acres having been disenclosed, a similar quantity might be planted on the same terms. It is to be noted that, even if the power thus granted had been exercised to the extreme, and under the system adopted in 1850, the commoners would only have lost the pasturage of one-tenth of the forest. The earlier enclosures were, however, agreeably to the spirit of the Actas the reader will presently observe actually restored as fair woodland pasture. But the plantations thus authorized were not completed, and it may be presumed, therefore, that the powers granted were found by experience larger than the need; for in 1851 only 9,600 acres had been enclosed and planted, the whole of which had been disenclosed with the exception of 1,800 acres; and it is a curious fact that the probable value of the timber in 1608 and the estimated value of the entire forest in 1849 nearly agree.

even the approach of summer and her "matron grace is almost regretted. Even in the denser and more formal woods the ragged undergrowth of holly and fern, and the mossy, rush-tufted glade which the blackcock makes his curling-ground, show that Nature has resumed her own.

The plantations made just previous to the year 1851, and since that date, are of a very different charaeter. Instead of small woods picturesquely distributed over the whole forest, plantations measurable by the square mile, and closely adjacent to each other, occupy its most beautiful hollows. In such places the native woodland has been completely swept away, and the old ornamental woods have gone to drug the timber market. Many a grassy valley and cattle-studded lawn has disappeared for ever beneath a sombre sea of Scotch fir. The pastures thus planted are destroyed, the old winding ways are filled with trees and intersected by indelible trenches, the new rides are laid out on no intelligible principle of convenience or picturesqueness, so that the plantations, when again thrown open to the public and the commoners, will offer neither free-passage, pasturage, nor beauty.

The woods thus brought into existence, owing to their limited extent, the system of planting adopted, and the tasteful selection of many of the sites, altered but little the general aspect of the forest, and in many cases added to its beauty. The surface planted suffered little change, and the banks were soon trodden down by the cattle, when the plantations had been again thrown open to pasture; glades ap- This radical change is the result of the peared where the young trees failed, and Deer Removal Act of 1851, under the prowere enlarged by the deer and ponies visions of which the last relics of the which, in winter, especially, consumed primitive forest will inevitably be cleared the rough overgrowth of the soil. The away in a few years, and the whole area stronger trees, outgrowing and supplant- may be planted over almost within the ing the weaker, gave variety of form and present century, unless Parliament intera natural wantonness to the wood. In the vene. Strange as this statement may apBentleys art is almost lost in nature; pear, the sequel will show how such a nanoble oaks, sloping glades shaded by shapely hawthorns and hollies, the stream winding through the crisp sward tufted with blackthorn, compose park scenery of the wildest character. A stroll in early

tional loss was involved in the fate of a few hundreds of deer. The fact, however, should be borne in mind, that the hereditary rights of the Crown over the forest comprised only the usual rights of a lord

of the soil, and those resulting from the imposition of forestal law upon the district by William the Norman- the latter being represented in modern times by the right to keep deer in it. Nor could any extension of power over the New Forest be obtained except by the grant of the Legislature and for national purposes.

the pollard ash in front of the cottage above, begin to feed; others, shy and wistful, are grouped on the heather around. The attention of the lingering observer is divided between the intermingling hues of the distant landscape and the animated scene at his feet; but at each return from long wanderings through space, where

"All ether softening, sober evening takes Her wonted station in the middle air, A thousand shadows at her beck,"

It is difficult to understand why the deer were preserved in the forest when they could no longer minister to the amusement of the sovereign; their value, however, as an ornament to the landscape could hardly be over-estimated. The av- the eye notes with surprise the lessening erage number is said to have been about groups upon the slope, as the deer disap3,000 head, of which a small proportion pear silently and mysteriously as they were red deer. The fallow deer were came. generally harboured about the keepers' But ornamental as the deer undoubtedly lodges for protection, and fed daily with were, their presence in the forest was on boughs of holly and ash, with hay and other grounds very objectionable. Being other food specially provided for them imperfectly protected, and harboured in the pollard ash on the village-green still large numbers near some of the villages, preserves in the neighbourhood of the for- they were an ever-present temptation to est the memory of the old order of things, the poorer classes, and by constant inroads and of the days when such trees were a upon the manors discouraged and injured small annuity to their owners. The feed- the farmers. Reports made to Parliament ing of the deer at Bramble Hill Lodge was from time to time recommended their reone of the most attractive sights in the moval upon public grounds; but upon the forest, the prospect thence being probably principal that its forestal rights would go unsurpassed by any in the South of Eng- with the deer, such excessive demands land. A lawn, not quite reclaimed from seem to have been made on behalf of the the little moor encircled by woods, slopes Crown, that these recommendations could towards the lip of a densely-timbered de- not be carried into effect. Compensation pression; beyond, -on one side, the flat was required, not only for the right to ridge of Stony Cross bars the view, but keep deer, but for a right to keep an unfalls at length partly across the middle limited number of them to the extinction distance, and in a succession of swelling of the pasturage of the commoners. Yet knolls tufted with trees subsides into the every attempt to increase the number to plain; on the other side, the diagonal line any extent had been frustrated by the of the estuary leads the eye onward from starvation of hundreds during severe winthe gleaming spires of Southampton to the ters. Nay, more, although the expense of point where the unbroken forest veils its keepers and of large supplies of artificial junction with the Solent, and seems to food entailed a heavy annual loss upon the touch the sea. The landlocked waters of sovereign, unaccompanied by any correCowes and the wavy outline of the Isle of sponding advantage, compensation was Wight close the scene. The foreground claimed for that which was in fact a costly lies in shadow, for the wall of Stony Cross and useless privilege as though it had been holds back the sidelong rays that create a valuable and profitable right. One atislets of light in the green expanse be- tempt, however, that was made for their yond; but the hollow woodland, with its removal deserves a passing notice, and is myriad domes of foliage and depths of also of interest as illustrative of the conblue atmosphere between that shroud the dition of the forest and the views of the radiating slopes, displays, whatever the Legislature with regard to it at the time. hour or season, a never-failing variety of A Royal Commission in 1789 (after an colouring or form. At the foot of the inquiry extending over nearly three years) lawn a miscellaneous collection of fodder made an elaborate and careful report, in lies outspread in the afternoon sunshine; which extraordinary revelations were made the keeper whistles again and again. of waste and wanton mismanagement in Slowly but suddenly, as if by magic, the the New Forest. A Bill was, therefore, deer begin to appear, and attended by the introduced in 1792 to provide for the fawns enter at the open bars. Some, eye- further increase and preservation of timing coyly the group of visitors beneath ber there, and for the removal of the

was

deer and the forestal laws connected with committee was also " of opinion that their preservation. henceforward the royal forest should asThe sanction of Parliament was request-sume the character of ordinary property, ed to the enclosure of 20,000 acres for the to be managed by officers appointed by the growth of timber for the use of the Royal Crown acting under the authority of ParNavy, the 6,000 acres granted for the same liament." purpose by the Act of William III. being But the recommendations of this comincluded in the amount. It was further mittee were not carried out in their inproposed that the deer should be confined tegrity nor in the spirit in which they in a park (part of the enclosures now to were made; advantage, however, be authorized being set apart for the pur- taken of some of them by the Office of pose), and the commoners relieved of the Woods to initiate an entirely novel policy. liability to have their cattle driven from This revolution in the management of the the forest during the fawning month and New Forest was brought about very gradin the winter. But the important recom-ually, and with such ingenuity, that it will mendation of the Royal Commission, that be well to let the facts speak for theman equitable arrangement should be made selves. But the impartial inquirer, who between the Crown and the commoners, would unravel the complications of a very and the wastes apportioned between them difficult subject, must accurately distinby an impartial tribunal, had been disre- guish the theoretical and actual, the forgarded. The omission proved fatal to the estal and manorial rights of the Crown, measure. The Bill had actually passed the and sever the forestal rights from the House of Commons without attracting at-right of chase, or free warren; and furtention; but on the presentation of a peti- ther investigate the intention of Parliation of a few landowners to the House of ment, and of the several parties to the Lords, to be heard by counsel, against it, Deer Removal Bill when it was under connothing further was heard of this some- sideration, and separate in thought the what singular attempt at legislation. The powers actually conferred by the Act from deer, therefore, remained in the New For- the extraordinary and destructive powers est, and although it was transferred in developed by the method of its execution. 1810 to the nation, with the other royal The outline of so large a subject can only forests, and passed under the management be indicated. of the Commissioners of the Woods and In the course of the year 1850 a keen Forests, the subject seems to have escaped eye might have observed blocks of land of notice for fifty years. Certain honorary unprecedented size, and closely adjacent forestal offices, indeed, had been distributed from time to time amongst the principal landowners, and an annual quota of venison was paid as compensation to those who did not kill the deer which invaded their fields; but the patience of the inhabitants of the New Forest was mainly due to the conciliatory policy adopted by the advisers and representatives of the Crown, who consulted the chief proprietors upon matters of importance.

At length a Select Committee appointed by the House of Commons (of which Lord Duncan was the chairman) sat and took evidence on the subject of this and other forests during the sessions of 1848 and 1849, and the revelations of half a century then made public rendered it impossible for the Crown to continue to keep the deer in the New Forest. The draft report (for the session closed before the report had been presented) recommended the total abolition of the deer and forestal laws connected with them, on the ground that the deer were a public nuisance and an unjustifiable annual expense.*

to one another, marked out as if for planting, their size and form indicating an intention to enclose the best land only, and some of the lawns which could least "be spared from the commons" of the New Forest. But nothing further was done, and the marks attracted little attention, because the foresters had been lulled into a fatal security by the limited and unimportant results of the Act of William III.* În 1850 a Commission, appointed "to inquire into and report upon rights and claims over the New Forest,"† visited the locality; but the Commissioners, desiring to make a report in time to enable "legislative steps thereupon in the present ses

upwards, and not more than 110 bucks were killed that every buck killed in the forest cost £100 and in a year, and they went principally in payment of compensation to those landowners who did not kill the deer which came upon their property."- Evidence, 1868, q. 319.

In fifty-two years after this Act was passed only was done. In 1808, 1.100 acres only were under en1,022 acres were planted, and until 1786 little more closure; and in 1816 the full amount of 6,000 acres At the time of the Deer Removal were taken in. The Act there were only 1,772 acres under enclosure. † On this subject see Mr. Jenkinson, pp. 20, 21.

"It was proved beyond the possibility of doubt

sion," and finding that they did not "pos-people of the district, that the intention to sess the means or authorities essentially enforce these laws was publicly disavowed. requisite legally to effect a complete and But this was not the only unforeseen reaccurate investigation of the matters in sult of the Act. The enclosures marked question," decided to place at once before out in 1850 (4,000 acres), under the Act the Treasury such information as their of William III., became immediately subsecretary had been able to collect, in order ject to the new principle of planting for to "suggest or promote inquiry." But in profit; and with this view a new system of 1851 the Chief Commissioner of Woods planting was introduced. It gradually introduced a Bill providing for the removal became evident that the clause in the Act of the deer, and fixing arbitrarily the com-designed for the protection of the common pensation for this forestal right of the rights would be rendered inoperative if Crown at 14,000 acres, to be enclosed and this system was pursued; the land thus planted on the terms of the Act of Wil- planted would obviously be valueless for liam III.; no provision, however, was pasturage when again disenclosed, and made for the ascertainment or registra- yet the sites of the new enclosures emtion of the rights of the commoners. The braced some of the most valuable pastures very language and terms of the Act of in the forest. Remonstrances were reWilliam III. having been adopted, the Bill peatedly made, in the hope that the Deseemed to be but an extension of its pow-partment of Woods and Forests would ers, but actually involved a totally new forbear to exercise to the full the powers principle that of planting for profit only. thus developed of destroying the value of The foresters were taken completely by surprise; but a few of the landowners sent up a petition against the Bill, alleging that the compensation proposed was extravagant, and that the preamble had been declared proved without any sufficient inquiry into the nature and extent of the commoners' rights, or into the value of the right of the Crown to keep deer.* This hurried opposition was so far successful that the Bill would probably have been thrown out by the Select Committee, but its opponents were induced to negotiate by the threat of a general enclosure of the forest, and seem to have consented to the reduced grant of 10,000 acres as the price of the surrender of the deer and of the forestal laws relating to their preservation. These negotiations, however, are involved in much mystery, and have not yet been satisfactorily explained; but it is certain that the clauses under which the common rights were ascertained and registered in 1854 were inserted by the Government at the instance of the opponents of the Bill, and that the commoners, as a body, had no opportunity of protecting their interests. The Bill, however, had no sooner passed than notices posted in the forest announced that ancient and hitherto unknown forestal laws were still in existence, and especially that the restrictions of Winter Heyning and Fence Month had been reserved, and would be enforced (contrary to the habitual practice when the deer were still in the forest) with full legal strictness. This notice created such an agitation among the

* Evidence, 1968, q. 319.
↑ lbid.

the common rights, but in vain; the only answer given was, that this effect of the Acts ought to have been foreseen in 1851, before the "compromise" embodied in the Deer Removal Act was accepted. Both Acts, it is true, provided for the due representation of local interests upon the Commission by which the enclosures are set out, but this check was neutralized in. practice. The site of an enclosure was rarely known until it had been authorized by the Commission, and sufficient opportunity was seldom, if ever, given to the local commissioners to examine the bounds proposed; they were called together by the Chief Commissioner of Woods as though they were expected to endorse the proposals emanating from the department.

Huge enclosures, therefore gradually overspread much of the best land, till in

to the Chief Commissioner of Woods (Mr. Kennedy): The resident deputy-surveyor writes (Dec. 31, 1853) "It appears to me to be important that the Crown should, as soon as possible, exercise its right of enclosing the 16,000 acres, because, exclusive of other advantages, by so doing, all the best pasture would be taken from the commoners, and the value of their shed, which would be of importance to the Crown rights of pasture would be thus materially dimin in the event of any such right being commuted." (Evidence, 1868. q. 807; compare q. 130) The writer would venture the opinion that inasmuch as (by the admission of the deputy-surveyor himself, who was appointed in 1849) the moorland, while worthless for other purposes, might be profitably planted with fir, it was unnecessary and impolitic to commence operations in 1851 by the enclosure and the plantation of the better land in the forest. The removal by the Deer Removal Act of the restriction to plant oak only, enabled the Office of Woods to adapt the system of planting to the circumstances of the for

est, and the reclamation of the "worthless " portion of its wastes (30,000 acres) might fitly have been made a national undertaking, being far too costly for private enterprise.

1867 the enclosures upon the eastern and diate partition of the forest between the most densely-peopled side of the forest, Crown and the commoners, adding that made and marked out for planting, formed the rights of the latter should be "equitaa nearly continuous belt about sixteen bly" estimated. square miles in extent. A large proporThe remark has been made that the intion of the commoners thus lost the lawns terest of the public in general was too litnear their homes, and found themselves tle considered in the course of this inquiry, (their cattle being practically excluded and in the management of the New from the forest) almost debarred from the Forest. Certain subjects, therefore, which exercise of their rights. The danger thus have a special bearing on the preservation brought home to the mind of the foresters of its open lands and native beauty, have produced louder and more pressing com- been reserved to the close of this sketch plaints. But the Chief Commissioner re- -namely, the condition and peril of the plied in 1868 by a report, which declared old woods and of the most picturesque that the commoners had no rights over the portion of the woodland. In 1819 the forest but by the forbearance of the Crown natural self-sown forest covered 9,000 to enforce the forestal laws, and that they acres, but between 1851 and 1869, 4.000 were causelessly interfering with the due acres have been cleared of their ancient execution of the Acts. Against the re- timber, which has been sold to meet the port petitions were presented in the House current expenses of the new plantations. of Lords, and a Committee of Inquiry was Much ornamental timber of incalculable granted in 1868.. The report and evidence value has thus been sold at nominal having been so lately published, a brief prices, and some of the grandest old summary of the results of that inquiry woods, including even Mark Ash and will be sufficient for the present purpose. Denny Wood and Burley Old, owe their The evidence shows that the powers given preservation to the efforts of the commonto the Crown by the Deer Removal Acters and residents. But in the early part are incompatible with the preservation of the rights of its co-proprietors and that a conflict of interests had ensued; that it would hardly be possible to carry the Act into effect, for while it only authorized the planting of such land "as could be best spared from the commons," it virtually conferred a power to confiscate all the pasturable land in the forest. Other unforeseen results of the Deer Removal Act were also brought forward. Evidence was tendered to show that the pastures remaining unenclosed had suffered by the removal of the deer (the value and extent of such pasture depending largely upon the number of species by which it is depastured), and by the diminution of the head of cattle turned out in consequence of the planting of the lawns and the threatened enforcement of the Winter Heyning. It was also proved that, unless Parliament intervene, the forestal character of the entire district must inevitably be destroyed, and its whole area converted into a monotonous nursery of timber within a comparatively limited period. The Committee finally advised the imme

To protect the lawns" and " greens, " which constitute the forest, the Act of 1851 provided that no enclosures should be made of less than 300 acres, "by virtue of any Commission hereafter to be is sued" under any of the Acts. But, as a new Commission was not appointed for some years, much invaluble pasture-land was planted, which otherwise would have escaped enclosure.- Evidence, 1868, q. 421-5, 433-5.

of the autumn of 1870, notwithstanding the recommendations of the Committee of 1868, and an express assurance made to Parliament that during the recess nothing should be done to alter the character of the district, the local commissioners were called together, and requested to set out "5,000 acres for plantation, including almost all the old woods." The Commission authorized the plantation of 2,500 acres, but refused to include the woods. If, however, some doubts which exist as to the interpretation of the Acts were removed, the Commission would find the claims of the Office of Woods irresistible. Immediate action, therefore, is necessary, if these relics of the primitive forest are to be preserved for the enjoyment of the public. The open spaces among the woodland are in no less danger, for about 6,000 acres only remain comparatively free from timber, and these will shortly be enclosed in due course, unless some arrangement be made for their preservation. In spite of various delays, that probably will not recur, about 11,500 acres have been enclosed in eighteen years, and the amount of land that may be taken for planting in

Oak fetches in the forest 1s. 4 1-2d, beech 3 34d., per foot. Return (Mr. Bonham Carter), July 16, 1867.

See Mr. Jenkinson, p. 27, and pp. 31, 32, who submits that to enclose the old woods without cutting them down would be "simply illegal," as the law stands, with regard to enclosures of the New Forest.

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