Windsor Forest and Park. 



Until its enclosure in 1817 Windsor Forest was an open common 

 on which the Crown and several subjects enjoyed mutual rights. 

 The period when the park was fenced ofif from the common ground 

 has not been ascertained. Norden's map of 1607 shows the boun- 

 daries, and Sir William Cecil was petitioned in 1568 to allow two 

 French glassmakers the privilege of cutting wood and burning char- 

 coal in Windsor Great Park. About the same date an anxious 

 Parliament took measures for increasing the supply of sliipbuilding 

 timber, and enacted that at the periodic cutting of the Windsor copses 

 twelve " standils or stores " per acre should be left to form a future 

 wood. It is probable that the fencing of the park from the forest 

 occurred long before the reign of Queen Elizabeth. Piecords relating 

 to this domain earlier than the time of Charles I. do not exist, as the 

 whole of those most interesting documents were destroyed during the 

 Civil War by the parliamentary soldiers, who held the castle through- 

 out the struggle, and found the papers useful material for lighting 

 their fire. Prince Rupert used his utmost efforts to dislodge the 

 destructionists, but without success. In the next reign he became a 

 keeper of one of the forest walks, and thirty other old soldiers 

 occupied the Great Park, which they farmed on the five-verst system, 

 the marks of their furrows being still visible. 



According to a survey of 1661, the king enjoyed a right to twelve 

 loads of hay, "to be taken j early from the meadow called Eunny- 

 mede," for the feeding of the deer. The principal forest walks were 

 Cranbourne, New Lodge, and Bagshot. Lord Mordaunt was the Head 

 Keeper and Constable of the caslle ; the arable land was let to the 

 old soldiers at £200 a year. It was a good time for timber, inasmuch 

 as John Evelyn, a zealous royalist, had recently delivered his " Dis- 

 ccurses on Forest Trees " before the Eoyal Society, and improvements 

 were afoot. Fences were now formed round the cultivated fields at 

 Windsor, hedgerow elms were planted, plantations filled up, and 

 grass seeds sown. Between the years 1670 and 1680 Evelyn was a fre- 

 quent guest at Windsor Castle, and the king was constantly engaged 

 planting rows of elms on the French plan, which had been previously 

 borrowed for the adornment of Sayes Court. Before the time of 

 Evelyn the country must have been very poorly ornamented with 

 timber. The magnificent forests of "nature's" planting had been 



