184 THE FORESTS OF ENGLAND. 



from the locality we are considering. Among other privi- 

 leges enjoyed by the monks was that of a ferry across the 

 river to Liverpool, such as that town then was ; and 

 strange enough, this old ' Monk's ferry ' still remains with 

 its old name, but attached now not to a holy brotherhood 

 of monks, but to a brotherhood of capitalists, carrying on 

 business (in both senses of the word carrying) under the 

 name of the Chester and Birkenhead Railway Company. 

 ' The blessings of knowledge and the benefits of religion ' 

 were therefore, we see, coming nearer and nearer our 

 submarine forest at Leasowe. In the reign of Edward III. 

 the peninsula was disafforested, and new villages doubtless 

 sprung up. Coming down to a later period, we learn that 

 it was from a port named Hoylake, close by the spot on 

 which this buried forest stood, that William Penn sailed 

 to America to found or colonise the district now known as 

 Pennsylvania ; and it was from the same port that William 

 III. embarked for Ireland to fight the battle of the Boyne." 



But history is silent in regard to the destruction of 

 the village and the forests ; and competent inquirers, it 

 is alleged, have considered that their antiquity goes back 

 to the time of the Romans. 



I see nothing incredible in this, and there are not 

 awanting indications of some of the buried remains of 

 forests found in other parts of England having been pre- 

 served since that time. 



About the time of the Roman invasion England was 

 extensively covered with trees. It is still a richly wooded 

 land, but nowhere do we meet with extensive areas of 

 woodland such as we have reason to believe existed then. 

 Considerable havoc was made by the Romans to enable 

 them to advance and secure their conquests, and besides 

 the historical notices which we have of the fact, we have 

 preserved beneath the surface of the soil, in connection with 

 remains of trees, Roman coins which seem to have been 

 deposited there along with these remains. In the notice 

 given of Hatfield Chase (at p. 169), it is mentioned that 



