2^0 THE NEW FOREST. 



demolition of thirty-six churches could hardly have 

 escaped the notice of the Chronicler. 



It is probable that the district in which the Forest 

 was created was wild and almost wholly uncultivated, 

 interspersed, perhaps, with a few hamlets in the more 

 fertile valleys. There are many indications in Domes- 

 day to this effect. We know, also, that many of the 

 Manors, of which the Forest consisted, were in the 

 hands of religious bodies before the Conquest. It 

 may be surmised that William took the wastes of these 

 Manors forcibly from these bodies, and converted them 

 into one great Forest subject to forestal law ; and that he 

 may also in some cases have appropriated the land of 

 private owners for the purpose. There is a passage in 

 Domesday Book, quoted by Freeman, to show that the 

 King did take property, from one person at least, for 

 the purpose of adding it to the Forest. He may also 

 have extended the limits of his Forest over contiguous 

 private lands, in the sense already described in the case 

 of Epping Forest namely, that while leaving the owners 

 in possession of them, he subjected them to the Forest 

 laws, and forbade the erection of fences above a certain 

 height, or the cutting-down of trees without his con- 

 sent, or the exercising the right of sporting over such 

 private domains. The extension of a Forest in a legal 

 sense in this manner, and the enforcement in it of the 

 cruel game laws, must necessarily have caused great 

 indignation in the district, and the early detractors of 

 the Conqueror may have magnified the transaction into 

 the story told and repeated by others. The misfortunes 



