wooddy grounds and fruitfull pastures, priviledged for wild beasts and foules of forrest, chase and warren, to rest and abide in, in the safe protection of the king for his princely delight and pleasure; while territorie of ground so priviledged is meered and bounded with irremoveable markes, meeres, and boundaries, either known by matter of record, or els by prescription. And also replenished with wilde beasts of venarie or chase, and with great coverts of vert for the succour of the said wilde beastes to have there abode in; for the preservacion and continuance of which said place, together with the vert and venison, there are certen particuler lawes, priviledges, and officers belonging to the same, meete for that purpose that are onely proper unto a forrest, and not to any other place." Blackstone thus defines a forest: "Forests are waste grounds belonging to the king, replenished with all manner of chase or venery, which are under the king's protection for the sake of his recreation and delight." The first forest-laws of which we have any record were passed in the reign of Canute the Great in 1016, and were extremely severe and savage. We shall devote a subsequent chapter to the forest-laws in general, where the native cruelty of these laws, and the mode in which they were enforced under successive kings, will be fully treated. The power granted by these laws enabled the kings to enclose any tract of forest they pleased, or to plant new forests; and this power was exercised with the utmost tyranny. All readers of history know the devastation committed by William the Conqueror, when he formed the new forest in Hampshire. Under the Norman kings the breadth of land covered with forests greatly increased. In the reign of Henry II. there was, according to Fitz-Stephen, a monk who lived at that period, a large forest round London, "in which were woody groves; in the covers whereof lurked bucks and does, wild boars and bulls ;" and these woods remained for centuries afterwards. Sir Henry Spelman, a celebrated antiquary, who lived in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, gives a list of English forests, which, though not perhaps absolutely correct, will yet serve to give an idea of the immense tract of land which these forests at one time covered. It will be seen from this list, that out of the forty counties of England, only fifteen, consisting chiefly of those situated on the east coast, did not contain forests; while some counties, such as York, contained five or six. Many of the forests here enumerated have now entirely disappeared; but some of them were of great magnitude and extent. The forests of Cumberland are all now "naked, desolate scenes;" in Lancashire it is difficult to find a grove, or glade, or any thing at all approaching to the idea of a wood; the great forests of Yorkshire have gone to make room for manufacturing towns, and farms, and railroads, and canals; and it is only in the middle and the south of England that any traces of royal forests remain. This decline is to be attributed to many causes: to the confiscation 2 Of those we have marked thus (*) we shall have to speak in the following pages. The rest have left no authentic remains, either historical or physical. of the church property, the diminished love of hunting, the extermination of wild animals, the increased demand for timber, the disturbances during the civil wars, and generally to the progress of civilisation. Into these considerations we will not at present enter," as they will be more particularly referred to in the special accounts of the separate forests, which will be found in subsequent chapters. We will now proceed to sketch the leading features of the particular trees of which our forests are composed. 3 In Dr. Hunter's edition of Evelyn's Sylva, published at York in 1786, we find the following very sensible note on this subject:—“In order to trace the history of the decay of our forest-trees, it will be necessary to remark that the first attack made upon them of any material consequence was in the twenty-seventh year of the reign of Henry VIII., when that monarch seized upon the church-lands, and converted them, together with their woods, to his own use. Ruinous as such an attempt might appear at first, it did not bring with it any very pernicious consequences, as the whole kingdom, at that early period, was plentifully stocked with all kinds of timber-trees, especially the oak. During the civil war which broke out in 1642, and all the time of the inter-regnum, the royal forests, as well as the woods of the nobility and gentry, suffered a great calamity, insomuch that many extensive forests had, in a few years, hardly any memorial left of their existence but their names. From that period to the present, there is some reason to apprehend that the persons appointed to the superintendence of the royal forests and chases have not strictly and diligently attended to their charge, otherwise the nation would not at this day have reason to complain of the want of oak, for the purposes of increasing and repairing the royal navy. This loss, however, would not have operated so severely, had the principal nobility and gentry been as solicitous to plant, as to cut down their woods. But this reflection should be made with some degree of limitation, as several thousand acres of waste land have, within these twenty years, been planted for the benefit of the rising generation. The Society of Arts, &c., established in London in the year 1754, have greatly contributed, by their honorary and pecuniary premiums, to restore the spirit for planting; and I flatter myself that a republication of Mr. Evelyn's Sylva will also contribute to that most desirable end. Tuffer, a versifier in the reign of Henry VIII., complains at that early period, that men were more studious to cut down than to plant trees; and as this author is often quoted by Mr. Evelyn, it will be proper to remark that his book is entitled Five Hundred Points of Husbandry, and is printed in black letter. It is written in quatrains, or stanzas, of four verses each, and contains more lines than Virgil's Georgics. The first edition was published in 1562. There are other editions in 1604 and 1672; also in 1710 and 1743, with notes and observations. Every thing that has a tendency towards the raising and diffusing a spirit for planting, is highly meritorious; and as our wooden walls have been esteemed for many ages past the bulwarks of this nation, we may hope, from the goodness of our august sovereign, that he will set an example to the nobility and men of large possessions, by ordering his wastes to be planted with timber-trees, especially the oak." HE natural characteristics of the OAK, its great and impressive size, the vast age which it reaches, the hardness and durability of its timber, have placed it at the head of all trees. Like the lion among quadrupeds, and the eagle among birds, the oak is the monarch of its kind. Few writers have described the oak so well as Virgil in his Georgics. He calls it "Jove's own tree," as it was made sacred to Jupiter by the Romans: THE OAK. Therefore nor winds nor winter's rage o'erthrows For length of ages lasts his happy reign, And lives of mortal men contend in vain. Full in the midst of his own strength he stands, Stretching his brawny arms and leafy hands; His shade protects the plains, his head the hills commands." 41 No tree in all the forest can vie with the oak in picturesque beauty or massive strength. Even a decayed oak has in it something great and imposing. Spencer gives us a fine picture of one of these : "A huge oak dry and dead, Still clad with reliques of its trophies old; Whose foot on earth hath got but feeble hold, And trunk all rotten and unsound." The poet Rogers has depicted the history of full many of these decayed monarchs of the forest in his address to " An old Oak :" "Round thee, alas, no shadows move, From thee no sacred murmurs breathe; Here once the steel-clad knight reclined, Then culture came, and days serene, Father of many a forest deep, Whence many a navy, thunder-fraught, Wont in the night of woods to dwell, The holy Druid saw thee rise, |