CHAPTER III. 



THE STOEY OF OUR ENGLISH WOODLANDS. 



Fyrebote and venison, housebote, ploughbote and vert ! How 

 far back must we search in order to find the exact period when 

 these seignorial and popular rights over the wooded portion 

 of the Ager Publicus became separated ? When was it that 

 the overlord established his claims to the meat of the dead 

 deer, and the timber of the living oak ; leaving to his villein- 

 age their common of estovers ? 



It would seem that, even after the institution of seignorial 

 autocracy, the people expected to enjoy rights of venery and pis- 

 cary ; so at least the following quotation from King Alfred's 

 Works would imply : " Every man wishes, after he has built a 

 cottage on his lord's lease, by his help, that he may sometimes 

 rest him therein, and hunt and fowl and fish, and use it in 

 every way to the lease both on sea and land, until the time 

 that he earn bookland and everlasting heritage through his 

 lord's mercy," ^ 



" In a newly inhabited country," Mr. Brown truly remarks,^ 

 in his work on Forestry, " the raising of artificial forests is not 

 of primary importance, but the retaining of the natural forests 

 is of ultimate importance." Therefore a period soon ensues 

 when the State interferes with proprietary rights: first, in 

 order to maintain the national timber supply; then, later on, 

 to encourage fresh plantations ; and finally, on the necessity 

 occurring for the importation of foreign produce, to control 

 prices by the agency of fiscal regulations. A glance, in fact, 

 at the earlier pages of almost any National Statute Book will 



* Groivth of English Industry, etc., Cunningham, vol. i. p. 61, 



* Tlie Forester, James Brown, p. 6. 



37 



