6 ENGLISH ESTATE FORESTRY 



and in proportion to the increase of the population, the drier 

 and most suitable forest districts would be occupied, and their 

 crop of indigenous timber thinned from various causes ; but 

 that wholesale destruction of forest by fire, such as went on 

 in America even before the advent of the white man, would 

 be out of the question, for deciduous forest growth in this 

 country does not readily burn or easily ignite. It would be 

 upon the forest, again, that the early Briton depended for his 

 wealth in the shape of cattle and hogs, and his sport in the 

 shape of deer and other animals ; and it is reasonably safe 

 to conclude, that while the downs upon which his remains 

 are so abundant were comparatively treeless, yet forest land 

 surrounded and was scattered amongst them wherever the 

 soil was of a suitable nature. 



The first important attack made on the dense forest of 

 the country was probably during the Eoman occupation. 

 Numerous evidences exist to point to the fact that one 

 branch of engineering with which the invaders employed 

 themselves, was the destruction of a portion of these forests. 

 The draining of Hatfield Chase in the reign of Charles I. 

 brought to light large numbers of buried trees, which had in 

 many cases been burned or felled, and amongst them were 

 found many Eoman remains. They are said to have set 

 fire to an extensive pine forest near Doncaster, into which 

 the Britons retreated after their defeat at Osterfield, and the 

 fallen and charred trees have been discovered beneath the 

 surface. This work was probably carried out, partly for 

 agricultural, and partly for strategic and political reasons. 

 The forests were the natural strongholds of the savage 

 tribes with whom the invaders had to contend, and they 

 naturally endeavoured to reduce the area of the former as 

 far as lay in their power. 



The earliest occupation of the forest on a large scale 

 appears to have taken place during the Saxon Period. 

 Kemble, in his well-known work, The Saxons in England, 

 fully describes the conditions under which these people 

 existed. He supposes that every settlement or community 

 was surrounded by a tract of forest or waste, and which 

 separated the possessions of one tribe from those of another. 

 This waste belonged to the community, and no individual had 



