FORESTRY 



fallow deer of the small black breed, supposed to be the original wild forest stock. There was a 

 herd of wild white cattle in this park at the time of Charles II. 



The two most ancient parks of Sherwood, those of Clipston and Bestwood, are now no more. 

 Clipston, where was the ancient royal lodge visited, as is known, repeatedly by King John and also 

 by the first three Edwards, possessed a park which enclosed an area of 1,583 acres in 1609, and 

 seven miles in compass ; it was utterly destroyed in the Civil Wars. It had a pleasant river running 

 through it full of fish, was well stocked with deer, and so abounding in fine trees, ' the tallest in the 

 county,' that their value was estimated at 20,000. When 'the loyal duke' visited Clipston after 

 the Restoration there was not a single tree left standing in the park. 1 



The fate of Bestwood Park, a few miles north of Nottingham, between Papplewick and Arnold, 

 was somewhat similar, though not so severely treated. This ' mighty great park,' as Leland termed it, 

 comprised 3,672 acres, and 'before the troubles was well stocked with red deer,' but when 

 Thoroton wrote in 1677 much of it was ploughed up and divided into closes. 2 The park that now 

 surrounds Bestwood Lodge is of very limited area. 



Clumber Park (duke of Newcastle), the largest, and in some respects the most beautiful, of the 

 Nottinghamshire parks, which lies immediately to the north of Thoresby Park, is of comparatively 

 modern date, and used to be known as the New Park. The earl of Clare (afterwards created duke 

 of Newcastle) received the crown licence in 1707 to enclose and impark 3,000 acres at Clumber. 

 Low, writing in 1794, says of this park, then so luxuriant with its new plantation, that 'thirty 

 years ago it was a black heath full of rabbits.' But this only refers to the newly enclosed parts, for 

 he elsewhere states that Clumber Park included the remains of two woods of venerable oaks, known 

 as Clumber Wood and Hardwick Wood. 3 The park now contains above 4,000 acres. By the 

 side of the large lake, cedars, pines, and various other coniferous trees grow to a great size. 



The hays of Birkland and Bilhagh, the last remaining portion of the crown lands in Sherwood, 

 were sold to the duke of Portland about 1800, who subsequently parted with them to Earl Manvers. 

 Low, writing in 1794, describes these hays as an 'open wood of large oak, but mostly decayed or 

 stagheaded.' 4 



Newstead Park, formed after the dissolution of the religious houses, was beautifully wooded 

 and well stocked with fallow deer ; but it was broken up into farms, and most of this side of 

 the Sherwood district was very much denuded of trees during the concluding period of the Byron 

 regime. Towards the close of the eighteenth century, the Lord Byron of the day cut down the 

 oaks wholesale to the value of 60,000, and the bleak treeless aspect of the surroundings of the 

 abbey in 1814 are mentioned in the memoirs of John Murray. The poet Byron planted some 

 sparse copse-like spinneys such as Poet's Wood ; Castle Wood and Abbey Wood are somewhat 

 similar, and consist largely of beech. There are a few conifers (pinus sy/vestris and larch) on the 

 estate, which appear to have been planted before Colonel Wildman's time. The woods, copses, 

 spinneys, and clumps, when he took over the Newstead estate, were of small extent, and could 

 have been of little value as timber, actual or prospective. Colonel Wildman was an enthusiastic 

 arboriculturist, and did a great deal of planting, but it was not done on economical lines, and was 

 chiefly for aesthetic purposes. The fact of his keeping an enormous stock of rabbits absolutely 

 precluded any rational or scientific system of tree-growing. One wood planted by him north of 

 the Mansfield and Nottingham road was originally very well laid out ; but, owing to the fallacies 

 and defects inherent in the old British theories of sylviculture of the past century, it has been so 

 treated as to be of little actual value. The late Mr. Webb planted a very considerable acreage, 

 mainly of conifers. The woods were well designed and laid out ; but the technical planting was 

 badly done, and the young trees were not scientifically looked after during their early growth. 

 The ignorance, incompetence, and prejudices of woodmen and so-called foresters frustrated the 

 well-schemed projects and designs of Mr. Webb, whose knowledge in these matters was in 

 advance of the general knowledge and practice in England. A considerable portion of the 

 Newstead estate consists of arable land of the annual value of 5*. per acre downwards, much of 

 which should never have been reclaimed from forest for tillage. This was due, here as elsewhere, 

 to the economic conditions preceding the repeal of the Corn Laws. 



Sir H. E. and Lady Chermside have of late years given much attention to the systems of 

 forestry in Germany and other countries. Their objective is to reconstitute the existing depleted 

 woodlands by the employment of 'jardinage' and other recognized methods of planting, and to add 

 to them by tree-culture on lands obviously better suited to such a purpose than to cereals or pasture. 

 One of the chief impediments to progress in this direction is found to be the very inefficient British 

 legislation concerning rabbits. The aggregate area of woodland, heath, and rough land on the 

 property is some 1,200 acres. 5 



1 Collins, Noble Families of Cavendish (1752), 42. * Thoroton, Notts. 258. 



3 Gen. View of Agiic. of Notts. 9, 20. * Ibid. 19. 



5 From the information of Sir H. E. Chermside, G.C.M.G., C.B. 



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