206 REPORT ON A VISIT TO SCOTTISH AND ENGLISH FORESTS. 
for its extent than its fertility. But, on the other hand, this very 
fact attracted a poor and necessitous population to settle in and 
around the forest, who during long ages have been accustomed to 
derive a precarious existence from it, and by careless abuses have 
threatened it with certain ruin. For many centuries the New 
Forest has thus been a prey to commoners, who use up its resources 
without either method or control. One may see there the steady 
onward progress which is made by the heather ; and although it is 
not perhaps so quick under the feet of the almost wild ponies and 
cattle as under those of the sheep, yet it is none the less sure. 
The sole remedy for this state of things was to restrict the com- 
moners to certain defined localities, and that could only be done by 
sacrificing a portion of the forest to save the rest. This is, in fact, 
what was done about twenty years ago ; but the sacrifice has indeed 
been a heavy one, for the reservation of some 14,000 acres has cost 
the abandonment of 49,000 more. The part which has been freed, 
however, is sufficiently extensive to constitute some day a respect- 
able forest, whilst the part given up is hurrying to its destruction 
in a manner deplorable to behold, and before very long there will 
be nothing left but a worthless barren heath. 
It is not, however, in twenty years that a forest so badly used as 
the New Forest can be restored. The first thing to be done was to 
put the soil in good order, and then to plant some of the vast 
stretches of heather with firs. Of late years the forest oflicers have 
sought, by excluding the cattle, to bring about the natural reproduc- 
tion of some portions hitherto abandoned to pasturage. But with 
whatever care these operations may be carried out, at least fifty 
years must elapse before they can resort to systematic fellings, 
with a view to furnishing a regular revenue. 
At present, contiguous portions of the forest often present the 
most curious contrasts. On one hand we see young firs and oaks 
growing side by side ; in another place a forest of pure oak, lan- 
guishing among chestnuts ; and in a third, plantations of fir and 
beech, indicating by the vigour of their vegetation, and their healthy 
appearance, that it is on them that the future of the forest ought to 
depend. Further on, there is a valley filled with aged beeches, 
whose weird forms gave an almost supernatural aspect to the spot ; 
we almost expected to see the ghost of William Rufus pursuing that 
of Walter Tyrrell through the haunted forest. 
Without contesting the marvellous beauty of some parts of the 
New Forest, so dear to artists and lovers of nature, we are bound 
