23-t THE NEW FOREST. 



Mark Ash especially an adequate idea can be formed 

 of a real Forest unspoilt by man. The trees stand 

 wide apart, and are all of great size ; at the edge of the 

 wood they are fully developed, and the boughs feather 

 to the ground, but within it the growth tends upwards. 

 Mixed with them are thickets of hollies and hawthorns 

 with a setting of fern, forming a sylvan scene of 

 unique beauty. Other portions of the Forest, in the 

 true sense of the term, consist of woods planted by the 

 Crown under legislative powers, which gave the right 

 to inclose land for the purpose, and to shut out the 

 Commoners until the trees should be grown to a size at 

 which the cattle could do no harm to them. 



During the Civil Wars of Charles I. and the 

 Commonwealth the Forest was much wasted of its 

 timber. Later, the fear arose that there would not be a 

 continuous supply of timber for the Navy. Power was, 

 therefore, given by Parliament in 1698 to inclose G,00() 

 acres for planting. This was strictly limited to the 

 growth of timber for national purposes. The planta- 

 tions were to be made gradually 2,000 acres were to 

 be inclosed at once, but the remainder at a rate not 

 exceeding 200 acres in any one year; and the planta- 

 tions were again to be thrown open to the Commoners 

 so soon as the trees were past damage by the cattle and 

 deer. When auy part of the 6,000 acres had been thrown 

 open, a similar quantity might again be planted on the 

 same terms. Under these provisions about 10,000 acres 

 w r ere inclosed and planted prior to 1851, but the whole 

 extent had been thrown open again, with the exception of 



