Aliceholt and Woolmer Forest. 



The forest of Aliceholt and Wooliner is situated in the east part 

 of the county of Hants, on the borders of the counties of Surrey and 

 Sussex, and is bounded on one side by the river Wey, which^becomes 

 navigable at Godalniing, about ten miles from the middle of the 

 forest, and communicates with the river Thames, affording an easy 

 conveyance of the forest timber to the dockyards in that river. The 

 most ancient perambulation of this forest recorded is dated in the 

 28th year of Edward I., from which document it appears that this 

 was one of the forests enlarged by the four preceding kings, and 

 reduced by Edward to its more ancient limits. Another perambula- 

 tion was made in the 11th of Charles I., and the boundaries of both 

 appear to be the same. In 1787 the whole of the forest consisted of 

 about 15,493 acres, but of that quantity about 6,799 acres belonged 

 to private proprietors, and the rest to the Crown. The forest consists 

 of two divisions, the one called the Holt, or Aliceholt, and the other 

 Woolmer. The two parts are separated from each other by consider- 

 able extent of intervening private property. Aliceholt was formerly 

 divided into three bailiwicks or walks, called the North, South, and 

 West Bailiwicks, but this distinction has long been laid aside ; 

 Woolmer is divided into two walks called Linchborough Walk and 

 Borden Walk. As is usual with English forests, there appear to 

 have been disputes concerning perquisites, and the advocates of 

 women's rights will not be displeased that a grant was made to a 

 Mrs. Howe, of the Eangership of Aliceholt Forest, for a term of forty- 

 five years commencing loth December, 1699. Certainly she ought 

 to have known something about the duties, as her deceased husband 

 officiated when in the flesh as lieutenant of the same. But not 

 content with one-seventh part of the produce of a sale in 1729, of 

 1,170 " dotaras " and decayed trees, which were sold by the Surveyor- 

 General for £980 (her receipt from such sale being £140), Mrs. Euperta 

 Howe claimed a right to the lop, top, and bark. With respect to 

 this transaction the Commissioners appointed to inquire into the state 

 and condition of the Crown forests, and whose report is dated 25th of 

 January, 1787, remark, " This claim having been thus once admitted, 

 it appears to have been made in one shape or other at every sale 

 since." In the accounts of the next sales in 1732 and in 1737-8, the 



