44 The yoiniial of Forestry. 



price of the trees only is accounted for to the Crown, clear of the 

 lops, tops, and oflal wood of the said trees, the same being claimed by 

 the said Mrs. Euperta Howe by virtue of her grant of the office of 

 ranger of the said forest, and her successors continued in her foot- 

 steps. But it is too wearisome to pursue the subject further, as it is 

 merely^the very old history of incompetent persons doing their best to 

 fill theirjDockets at the national expense. To read the history of it, 

 one wonders how even a fagot of firewood was ever devoted to the 

 service of the countr}^ During the eighteenth century no timber had 

 been cut in this forest prior to 1777 for the use of the Eoyal Navy, 

 probably owing to the trees not having till about that time grown to 

 the necessary size. A fall of 300 loads of oak was then ordered by 

 warrant Irom the Treasury for the use of the navy, and delivered at 

 the usual price allowed for oak timber furnished to the dockyards 

 from other cif the royal forests, being 38s. per load. It was argued at 

 the time, that if the timber had been put up for sale it would have 

 realized nearly £2,500, whereas, at the arbitrary price of 38s. 

 it only produced £1,074 10s. 9d., to which was to be added about 

 £80 for stackwood, taken away by the people of Frensham under a 

 pretended right, and out of which was to be deducted £179 19s. 9|d. 

 for the expenses of cutting, &c., charged in the surveyor's account. 

 In this case again it was a lady, Lady Hillsborough, who was lieu- 

 tenant of the forest, and bewailed the loss of perquisites she was 

 undergoing by the timber being used in the national service. It 

 is, however, cheering to know that she gained nothing by her com- 

 plaint. The Frensham folk, however, appear to have been the 

 De Morgans of the ^day, for in 1788 another fall of 500 loads was 

 ordered, and it being also ordered that the entire fall, including offal 

 wood, should be sold by public auction, they openly carried the 

 latter off, to the number of 6,365 fagots in one day and night. The 

 Eoyal Commissioners observe, " In case the lieutenant should 

 establish a right to the boughs and branches of all trees felled in the 

 forest, we apprehend it to be extremely necessary that it should be 

 determined what parts of a timber tree are comprehended under 

 that description. It is well known that in navy timber, some of the 

 most valuable pieces, as knees, crooks, &c., are taken from the limbs 

 or branches of trees, and that other parts of the branches frequently 

 contain timber fit for carpentry uses. It sometimes happens, also, that 

 trees apparently fit for the navy prove unfit for that use, from some 

 defect not discoverable while they are standing ; which trees, never- 

 theless, contain good building timber, and large butts of trees and 

 other pieces of timber are frequently cut oft' as unfit for the navy, but 

 which are very useful for other purposes. So that if the lieutenant 

 were allowed to take all that is not fit for the use of the navy, as was 



