30 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
in diameter! against a telegraph company for the loss of pasture 
by the space occupied by their poles! even against a converter 
of felled timber for the injury caused by depositing a heap of 
saw-dust! and all of these operations have had the sanction of 
the Crown as owner of the Forest. It is but fair to the actual 
exerciser of the right of pasture, to say that he is, as a rule, 
no party to these proceedings, caring like Gallio for none of these 
things so long as his right is not really interfered with, which he 
knows will never be done by such practices as have been described. 
It is his active friends who thus engage in warfare on his behalf, 
especially when an election is pending ! 
The other two rights, of turbary and estovers, are both entirely 
harmful. The “turbary” or turf right is practised by paring the 
surface of the heath lands, removing the heather with its roots and 
all vegetable humus, which make a kind of inferior fuel—there 
is no real peat in the Forest. The land, poor at first, is 
impoverised -by the removal of what little soil will grow even 
heather ; then, as in course of years it slowly recovers, and the 
roots of the adjoining plants spread over the denuded space, it 
is again pared, and so on year by year. Nothing can be imagined 
more injurious to land, and the only excuse for the practice is, 
that it is only performed on land of the very worst quality, 
and is a boon to the poorest of the population. It is greatly 
falling into disuse, to the public advantage. 
The common of ‘‘estovers” is also a most injurious tax on the 
property of the public. Every report or inquiry that has been 
held on the Forest, has recommended that this claim should be 
abolished. As long ago as the twenty-sixth year of Queen Elizabeth 
it was ordered, with the view of checking the growth of this practice, 
that “no inhabiters of any house newly builded since the beginning 
of the Queen’s Majesty’s reign that now is, shall be allowed any wood 
in the same forest to be burnt and expended therein.” The claims 
consist of so many loads of ‘‘ good fuel wood,” and each house now 
enjoying the right is supposed to be able to trace its existence 
back to the commencement of the reign of Elizabeth. But it is 
to be feared that this order has been frequently evaded, for it 
appears that in 1809 the number of loads had risen to 841, of 
which 160 were stopped as being unlawfully claimed. In former 
years this right was the subject of very great abuses. Whole trees 
of beech, or even oak, were assigned, and often more trees were 
cut than were assigned, while much damage to young timber was 
