282 Selwood Forest. 
Deverill to build another house. There are some old gnarled oaks 
scattered about near a brook which were part of the original park. 
The old road from Longleat to Warminster lay along there, as may 
still be seen. The hills round the present park did not at that time 
belong to the estate. The present beautiful entrance and the road 
down the steep hill are of comparatively modern date. 
As to the full size and extent of Selwood Forest, when at its 
largest, I do not pretend to be able to follow the outside boundary 
with precision. Having never met with any old map of it at any 
period my only authorities are Perambulation deeds, or other docu- 
ments that happen to allude to it: and in these so many of the 
old names that occur are now lost that one must be content with 
as near an approach to the real state of the case as the circum- 
ances will permit. This has been attempted in the small map that 
accompanies this paper: and in the appendix to it are given the 
principal documents that have supplied the names of the places that 
were once within the limits of the forest. 
The forest lay in two counties, and having been at first of 
moderate size in each county, was enlarged from time to time by 
royal encroachments, chiefly between the reigns of Henry II. and 
Edward III. Owing to these encroachments, the Wiltshire 
part—at first much smaller than that in Somersetshire—became 
at length much the largest. Speaking briefly, the old Somerset 
forest began near Bruton and ran up to Frome and Roddenbury 
Hill. The old Wiltshire began at Roddenbury and went up 
only as far as Penleigh and Brook House, near Westbury. 
But in course of time the Wiltshire part had been actually 
carried up as far as Whaddon, where it joined Melksham Forest, 
and then back, along the line of the downs, to near Shaftesbury, 
where it would touch Cranbourne Chase. The tyrannical forest 
law and the great annoyance to private property—such as not being 
able to cut your own trees without leave—and the damage and in- 
convenience of having hundreds of deer ranging at will over your 
farm, destroying the corn and the turnips, created at last such a bad 
feeling, perhaps a rebellious one, that the kings were obliged to 
reduce them, and let them be limited to the original known size. 
