6 EXTINCT BRITISH ANIMALS. 
firms this, and even carries this country of woods 
farther south. He says: “ Of ancient tyme all the 
quarters of the country about Lichefeild were forrest 
and wild ground.’”* That would bring the Stafford- 
shire woodlands close up to the purlieus of Charn- 
wood Forest, in Leicestershire. Nor is this all; 
for about three miles north-west of Lichfield com- 
mences Cannock Chase, with its parks as numerous 
and extensive as those of Needwood, from which it 
was separated only by the River Trent. This chase, 
even at a comparatively recent period, was “said. to 
contain 36,000 acres,” while “in Queen Elizabeth’s 
time Needwood Forest was twenty-four miles in 
circumference.” + 
The mountainous and moorland district to the 
north of Staffordshire, as many names of places still 
indicate, was also heavily wooded at one time, and 
contains, near its northern extremity, the singular 
defile of rocks and caverns locally called Ludchurch, 
said to have been the scene of Friar Tuck’s ministra- 
tions to Robin Hood and his merry men.{ This 
part of Staffordshire, bounded by the river Dove on 
its eastern side, and on the west passing close to 
Congleton in Cheshire, and another ancient forest 
known as Maxwell forest, runs like a wedge near 
Buxton into that wild country where the great 
* Leland, “ Itinerary,” ed. Hearne, vol. iv. p. 114. 
+ Erdeswick, “Survey of Staffordshire,’’ ed. Harwood, pp. 192, 
279. These were both celebrated for their oaks and hollies: those in 
Needwood alone, in 1658, when it had been much reduced in extent 
and denuded of its timber, being valued at 30,7 1I0l, 
+ Storer, ‘ Wild Cattle of Great Britain,” p. 65. 
