6o8 DENUDATION AND SCENERY. 



soon, however, as the conditions became favourable, and while 

 our land still formed part of the Continent, the various animals 

 and plants that compose our modern fauna and flora made their 

 homes on British soil. To plant-life the aspect of our land 

 is of course most largely indebted, and the earlier settlers included 

 the Oak, Ash, Willow, Poplar, Alder, Birch, Beech, Hornbeam, 

 Pine, Holly, and Yew, some specially suited to moist alluvial 

 tracts, others to clayey soil, and a few to dry sandy elevations. 

 Forests of Oak probably occupied the greater part of our low-lying 

 clay districts, while the underwood consisted of Hazel, Blackthorn, 

 Hawthorn, Elder, Brambles, and Briars. 



While at one time the entire country was a tract of woodland, 

 heath, and swamp, so soon as it came to be inhabited and en- 

 closures were made by the settlers, the land outside the homesteads, 

 or that ' beyond jurisdiction,' was termed the ' Forest.' Hence 

 many original tracts thus designated, such as Dartmoor Forest, 

 were not necessarily well-wooded, although most of them probably 

 were. As the Forest-land came in time to be separated into distinct 

 areas, each division received its name, and some of these names are 

 still retained ; but the areas have become more and more broken 

 up, so that most of the old historic forests have been split up 

 into a few scattered woods, or tracts of heathland. 



Among the old forests of England on the Palaozoic sti-ata were Charnwood 

 Forest, the P^orests of Dean, Exmoor, Dartmoor, Mendip, Wyre, CUin, Hayes, the 

 Black Forest (between CricldTOwel and Hay), Weardale, Teesdale, Rlilburn, Lune, 

 Bowland, Stainmoor, Richmond (Yorkshire), Skiddaw and Riddlesdale (North- 

 umberland) ; on the A'ew Red Sandstone strata, Delamere Forest (around 

 Northwich and Chester), the Forest of Arden (Warwickshire), Needwood Forest 

 (Staffordshire), Sherwood Forest (Nottinghamshire), North Petherton Forest 

 (around Bridgewater) ; on the Liassic strata, Neroche Forest (including that of 

 Ashill, to the West of Ilminster) ; on the Oolitic strata, Salcey and Whittlewood 

 Forests (Nortliamptonshire), Braydon Forest (west of Cricklade), Wychwood 

 Forest (north-west of Oxford), Selwood Forest (between Frome and Wincanton), 

 and Gillingham Forest (Dorset) ; on the Wealden strata, St. Leonards and Tilgate 

 Forests (near Horsham and East Grinstead) ; on the Gault and Grecnsand, 

 Woolmer Poorest (east of Selborne), Ayles or Alice Holt Forest (east of Alton) ; 

 and on the Tertiary strata, the New Forest (Hampshire), Bere (north of Ports- 

 mouth), Savernake Forest (Wilts), Windsor Forest (Berkshire), and Epping and 

 Hainault Forests (Essex). In early times the Wealden Sylva Anderida was the 

 largest English Forest. 



By the cutting down of ■ forests the rainfall has been locally 

 modified, while man has influenced the physical conditions in other 

 ways, by the embankment of rivers, the building of sea-walls, and 

 extensive systems of drainage. Owing to the numerous enclosures 

 and other causes many of the wild animals became exterminated, 

 but their former presence is sometimes indicated in the names 

 of places.^ While man has thus in many ways modified the surface 

 of the land, he has diversified its aspect by hedgerows, and by the 

 introduction of numerous trees, notably the Common Lime, the 

 Horse Chestnut, Acacia, Plane, Spruce Fir, Larch, Cedar, Lombardy 

 Poplar, Mulberry, and Laburnum ;'' and in many respects our Parks 



' J. E. Harting, British Animals, 1880. 

 * Trans. Norfolk Nat. Soc. iii. 456. 



