The New Forest : its History and its Scenery. 



has related each minute event of his reign, exposed each short- 

 coming, and branded each crime, say of the cruelty of the affo- 

 restation. Evidence like this, coming from such an authority, is 

 in the highest degree important. The silence is most suggestive. 

 It is impossible to believe, that so faithful an historian, had it 

 been committed, should never have hinted at the devastation 

 of so much property, and the double crime of cruelty and 

 profanity in destroying alike the inhabitants and their churches. 

 But the briefest analysis of Domesday, and a comparison 

 of its contents with those of the survey made in Edward the 

 Confessor's reign, will more clearly show the nature and extent 

 of the afforestation than any of the Chroniclers. From it 

 we find that about two-thirds of the district, including some 

 thirty manors, was entirely afforested. But it by no means 

 carries out the account that the villages were destroyed and 

 the inhabitants banished, or, according to others, murdered. 

 For in some cases, as at Eling, it is noted that the houses 

 are still standing and the inmates living in the King's Forest ; 

 and in others, as at Batramsley, Pilley, Wootton, and Oxley, 

 express mention is made that only the woods are annexed, and 

 that the meadows and pastures are not afforested, but remain in 

 the hands of their former "VVest-Saxon holders.* Again, too, we 

 find that some of the manors, as at Hordle and Bashley, though 

 considerably lessened, kept up their value. Others, as at Efford, 

 actually doubled their former assessments. Still more remark- 

 able, some again, as at Brockenhurst, Sway, and Eling, though 

 reduced in size, increased one-third and two-thirds in value. 



* See Domesday (the photo-zincographed fac-siniile of the part relating 

 to Hampshire; published at the Ordnance Survey Office, 1861), p. xxix. b, 

 under Bertramelei, Pistelslai, Odetune, and Oxelei. 

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