( 33 ) 



SECTION XIII. 



/ i 



JJRITAIN, like other countries, abounded 

 once in wood. When Cailibalan, Caractacus, 

 and Boadicia, defended their country's rights, 

 the country itfelf was a fortrefs. An ex- 

 tenfive plain was then as uncommon, as a 

 foreft is now. Fitz- Stephen, a monk of 

 Canterbury, in the time of Henry II., tells 

 us, that a large foreft lay round London ; 

 " in which were woody groves ; in the covers 

 whereof lurked bucks and does, wild boars, 

 and bulls." To fhelter beads of the latter 

 kind we know a foreft muft be of fome 

 magnificence. Thefe woods, contiguous even 

 to the capital, continued clofe and thick 

 many ages afterwards. Even fo late as Henry 

 VII.'s time we are informed by Tolidore Virgil, 

 that, " Tertia propemodum Angliie pars pecori, 

 aut cervis, damis, capreolis (nam et ii quoque 



in 



