The Commission of 1789. 45 



Nothing was done towards planting during the reigns of 

 Anne and George I. ; * and Phillipson's and Pitt's plantations 

 in 1755 and 1756 are the next, but they have never thrived, owing 

 to the land not having been drained, and the trees not having 

 been thinned out at the proper time. 



In 1789 a Commission was appointed, and revealed a terrible 

 state of things. William's provisions had not only been set 

 aside, but defied. Cattle were turned out, the furze and heath 

 cut, and the marl dug by those who had no privileges. The 

 Forest was, in fact, robbed under every pretext. The deer, from 

 being overstocked, died in the winter by hundreds from starva- 

 tion. On every side, too, encroachments were made by those 

 whose business it was to prevent them. The rabbits destroyed 

 the young timber, whilst the old was stolen. f 



In 1800 there was fresh legislation,^ but it does not seem to 



* To show how for years the Forest was neglected and robbed, we find, 

 from a survey made in James I 's reign, 1608, that there were no less than 

 123,927 growing trees fit for felling, and decaying trees which would yield 

 118,000 loads of timber; whilst in Queen Anne's reign, in 1707, only 

 1 2,476 are reported as serviceable. See Fifth Report of the Land Revenue 

 Commissioners, Journals of the House of Commons, vol. xliv p. 563. The 

 waste in James I.'s and Charles I 's time must have been enormous, for from 

 the u Necessarie Remembrances" before quoted we find that there were not in 

 1632 much above 2,000 serviceable trees in the whole Forest. 



f See, as before, Fifth Report of the Land Revenue Commissioners, 

 pp. 561, 562, and especially the evidence of the under-steward, Ap- 

 pendix, 583. As far back as February 20th, 1619, we find that James I. 

 gave the Earl of Southampton 1,200Z. a year as compensation for the 

 damage which the enormous quantity of deer in the Forest caused to his 

 land. Letter from Gerrard to Carleton, Feb. 20, j|L 8 , Record Office. Do- 

 mestic Series, No. 105, f. 120 Gilpin (vol. ii pp. 32, 33, third edition) 

 states that m his day two keepers alone robbed the Forest to the value of 

 50,000/. 



{ Journals of the House of Commons, vol. xlvii. pp. 611-792; vol. Iv. 

 pp. 600-784. 



