FORESTRY AND THE NEW FOREST 



placed under ban as royal hunting-grounds, while the penalties for 

 offences against the royal enactments were mild in comparison with the 

 savage punishments inflicted on those who transgressed against the forest 

 laws introduced by the Normans shortly after the Conquest. 



There is still less of accurate information extant concerning the 

 woodlands of the Isle of Wight during the Saxon and Danish periods. 

 The river Medina, flowing towards the north, was flanked by ancient 

 woods of which Parkhurst Forest alone remains in the shape of any large 

 compact block. It was a scantily populated island during the Roman 

 period, and became later on occupied chiefly by Jutes ; and it probably 

 remained thickly wooded until comparatively late times, except on the 

 chalk downs where woodland covering could easily be destroyed beyond 

 hope of natural regeneration. 



It is, however, with the making of the New Forest by William the 

 Conqueror in 1079, registration of land tenures and assessments to 'geld' 

 tax, and the great Domesday Book in 1081-6, that its special position 

 was acquired by Hants with regard to English forestry, because the New 

 Forest was one of the forests mentioned in Domesday, along with 

 Dean in Gloucester, Windsor in Berkshire, Huchennode (Whichwood) 

 in Oxfordshire, Winburne (Wimborne) in Dorset, and Gravelinges in 

 Wiltshire. And it is still, as it always has been, the most important and 

 the most interesting of all the royal forests as regards its history and its 

 administration. The Saxon and the Danish kings loved the chase well, 

 but with the Norman kings it was a passion. Moreover, a change in 

 the game laws existing at the time of the Conquest became a necessary 

 measure in introducing the feudal system into England, so the game laws 

 gave place to forest laws and the ' king's woods ' became ' forests.' For 

 political purposes it was desirable not only to curtail and abolish many 

 of the privileges previously enjoyed by the earls, thegns and other land- 

 holders, but also to prevent them, so far as possible, from using arms ; and 

 one most effective step in this direction was to prohibit them from exer- 

 cising the rights and privileges they had hitherto enjoyed as regards the 

 chase. Hence William the Conqueror, for political purposes as well as 

 from personal inclination, decreed that the right of hunting was vested 

 solely in himself, and could only be exercised by him or by those of his 

 nobles to whom he was graciously pleased to accord such privilege. Thus 

 the Norman king usurped the monopoly of hunting within the royal 

 preserves, whereas before the Conquest two descriptions of chase had 

 been recognized, the higher being reserved for the king and the lower 

 enjoyed by the landholder. 



Manwood is frequently quoted 1 as saying of the New Forest that it 

 is ' the newest forest in England.' He does say this, it is true ; but his 

 remarks, thus construed, seem rather confused. What he wrote was, 

 'The Newest Forrest, that is in England at this day (i.e. 1598), is the 

 new Forrest in Hampshire, for ther is no Forrest that doth now 



1 Third Report of Commissioners on Woods, forests, etc. (1788), p. 7 ; and other works. 



415 



