250 FOREST OF DEAN. 



extension of the Eoyal Forests. Thus diminished, it 

 was confined to the Hundred of St. Briavel, a district 

 about twice the size of the present waste. 



King- Stephen granted the Forest to the daughter 

 of Fitz-Walter on her marriage with Herbert Fitz- 

 Herbert ; from her it passed through the families of the 

 Bohuns and Newmarches, till it reverted to King John- 

 This monarch was often in the district for sport. From 

 his time to the present, the ownership of the soil appears 

 to have been vested in the Crown ; and there was a 

 long succession of Wardens of the Forest, and Constables 

 of St. Briavel's Castle, appointed for life by the Crown, 

 till the duties of the Warden were vested, in 1834, in 

 the Commissioners of Woods and Forests. The earliest 

 perambulation of the Forest was in 1282; in 1333, 

 Parliament confirmed the perambulation, and reduced it 

 to the limits which existed up to 1834, when it was 

 disafforested. 



There are many interesting incidents connected with 

 the Forest during this long period. It appears to have 

 supplied timber for the construction of ships of war 

 from an early time, and the oak grown there had the 

 reputation of being exceptionally tough and well suited 

 for war ships. So well was this reputation known that 

 the destruction of the Forest was specially enjoined by 

 the Spanish Government on the leaders of the Spanish 

 Armada. Evelyn in his " Sylva " says on this point : 

 " I have heard that in the great expedition of 1588 

 it was expressly enjoined the Spanish Armada that if, 

 when landed, they should not be able to subdue our 



