ANCIENT FORESTS. 11 



till it acquired the conventional application made of it in 

 our day to a somewhat extensive, dense, and irregular 

 growth of self-sown trees, like to the siha horrida of 

 Roman authors. But here it must suffice to state that 

 in colloquial phrase in the olden time, and in legal 

 phraseology still, the connection of the term with trees is 

 only incidental and adventitious. Startling as the state- 

 ment may be, if it be now met with for the first time by 

 any reader, it is nevertheless true that there may be a 

 forest where there are no trees, and a boundless continuity 

 of primeval woods, without its being entitled to be legally 

 designated a forest. 



In other countries, as for example in France and in 

 Germany, such terms as forests, forestry, or terms corre- 

 sponding to these, are terms applied constantly to laws 

 and proceedings regarding forests as consisting of wood- 

 lands and productions of fuel, wood, and timber ; and thus 

 it is with the popular use of such terms in England at the 

 present time, and, in the scientific or technical phrase, 

 Forest Economy. But in England in legal phraseology, 

 and even in tales relating to the olden time, the same 

 terms are applied almost exclusively, if not entirely so, to 

 laws regarding the forests as affected by the Game Laws, 

 and to the conservation and shooting of deer; and so 

 different are the imports of such words now when used in 

 legal deeds, and when they are used in common conser- 

 vation, that the adoption of foreign terms has been in some 

 cases deemed necessary to secure accuracy and precision. 



The etymology of the word is involved in obscurity. It 

 is formed from the Latin word foresta, which first appears 

 in the Capitulars of Charlemagne, and this is said to have 

 been derived from the German word fdrst, which was 

 applied to the same thing. Sir Henry Spelman, a dis- 

 tinguished antiquary who lived in the reign of Queen 

 Elizabeth, conjectured that it may have been derived from 

 fores restat, applied to what remains outside the town. It 

 would thus correctly describe what was the case in the 

 time of Caesar, and in the time of Spelman, and it may be 

 said also still. 



