v ( 39 ) , . V 



alib have differed. After the foreft had loft 

 it's great legal fupport, and reafons of ftate 

 obliged the monarch to feek his amufements 

 nearer home, the extent of thefe royal de- 

 meifns began infenfibly to diminifh. New- 

 f or eft, among others, was greatly curtailed. 

 Large portions of it were given away in 

 grants by the crown. Many gentlemen have 

 houfes in it's interior parts ; and their te- 

 nants are in porTeflion of well-cultivated 

 farms. For tho the foil of New-foreft is 

 in general, poor , yet there are fome parts 

 of it, which happily admit culture. Thus 

 the foreft has fuffered in many places, what 

 it's ancient laws confidered as the greateft 

 of all mifchiefs, under the name of an 

 ajfart*-, a word, which fignifies grubbing 

 up it's coverts, and copfes, and turning the 

 harbours of deer into arable land. A flop 

 however is now put to all grants from the 

 crown. The crown-lands became public 

 property under the care of the treafury, when 

 the civil lift was fettled. The king can 

 only grant leafes for thirty years ; and the 



* Se Manwood, ch. ix, fee. i. 



D 4 parliament 



