64 THE FORESTS OF ENGLAND. 



The Act provides that the deer are to be removed 

 within two years ; and that the right to keep deer in the 

 said forest to cease. In lieu of such right Her Majesty is 

 empowered to enclose not exceeding 10,000 acres, in addi- 

 tion to the 6000 acres already enclosed ; which enclo- 

 sures are to remain in severalty in possession of the crown 

 freed from right of common and other rights. When the 

 trees within the enclosures are past danger of browsing of 

 cattle, or other prejudice, such enclosures to be thrown 

 open, and new enclosures to be made in lieu therof. The 

 expenses of the enclosures are to be defrayed by sale of 

 decayed or other trees (not being ship-timber). 



"All her majesty's rights are preserved, save as regards 

 the keeping of deer. 



" The Commissioners of Woods and Forests have power 

 to lease parts of the New Forest ; and her majesty may 

 grant licenses to sport over it 



Of the arboreal condition of this forest, we are supplied 

 with the following account by Mr A. C. Bishop, in a 

 paper in the Journal of Forestry (vol. v., p. 187-192), 

 entitled " The Ancient Forests of Hants." He writes : 



"'There has been a time when Britain was well-nigh 

 covered with forests, and was without human inhabitants. 

 The elk, the bison, and the wild horse roamed in droves 

 over the land; the beaver built in the rivers and fens; 

 herds of elephants pastured in the Oxford woods ; the bear 

 and the wolf, even the tiger and hyaena, lurked in the caves 

 of Devonshire, or infested the Yorkshire wolds ; the whale 

 gambolled in the waters of the Forth.' 



" Such are the opening words of a history which has done 

 much to place before us a vivid and an accurate picture 

 of our country in its oldest times. The description suits on 

 more than one point the southern county which is the 

 subject of the present paper. Its state, at the time of the 

 first Roman invasion, was, with the exception of the downs, 

 one of almost continuous wood. On the thin soil of those 

 wind-swept heights there are no vestiges of former forests. 



