FORESTRY AND THE NEW FOREST 



To provide more adequate supervision over the valuable oak and 

 other timber in the royal forests, the ' Master of the Woods ' was in 

 1542 made an ex officio member of the ' Court of the General Surveyors 

 of the King's Lands ' (33 Hen. VIII. cap. xxxix.). 



More important, however, so far as the growth of timber and the 

 well-being of the woodlands were concerned, was the Act for the Preser- 

 vation of Woods of 1543 (anno 35 Hen. VIII. cap. xvii.), wherein specific 

 instructions were given which will be more particularly referred to later 

 on, when treating of arboriculture in the Crown forests (see pp 036-8). 



The repeal by Edward VI. of the irrationally harsh laws of Henry 

 VIII. as to poaching and stealing game was only what might have been 

 expected of that gentle sovereign ; and as his immediate successors on the 

 throne were women, Mary and Elizabeth, they naturally felt less concern 

 than men in hunting and the pursuit of game to the death. Hunt- 

 ing was, however, a favourite pastime of the great landowners, so an Act 

 was passed (anno 5 Eliz. cap. xxi. 1562 A.D.) for the punishment of 

 trespass and of poaching or unlawful hunting in 'Parks and Inclosures ' ; 

 and this Act was subsequently amplified in 1605 (anno 3 James I. cap. 

 xiii.) by An Act against unlawful Hunting, Stealing of Deer and Conies, 

 applying it to enclosures made subsequent to the former Act and deter- 

 mining the procedure with regard to the trial of offences. Later on, in 

 1 66 1, there was passed (anno 13 Charles II. cap. x. 1661 A.D.) An Act 

 to prevent the unlawful Coursing, Hunting, or Killing of Deer ' in any Forest, 

 Chase, Purlieu, Paddock, Wood, Park or other Ground where Deer are 

 or have been usually kept within the Realm of England or Dominion 

 of Wales.' A more generally comprehensive Act for the better Preser- 

 vation of Game and for securing Warrens not inclosed, which authorized the 

 appointment of gamekeepers, was passed in 1 670, but neither this nor 

 any of the subsequent enactments regarding game in general had special 

 reference to forests or woodlands. 



Close attention was given during Elizabeth's reign to the timber- 

 producing resources of the royal forests, and a report was drawn up in 

 1565 by Roger Taverner, the queen's surveyor, concerning the condition 

 of all the forests south of the Trent, while about twenty years later his 

 successor, John Taverner, also made similar surveys (1584). The Book of 

 Survey made by Roger Taverner (1565) shows that the various woods 

 within the New Forest were situated in the Burley Bailiwick (454 

 acres), Frytham Bailiwick (884 acres), Batramsley Bailiwick (648 acres), 

 North Bailiwick (1,190 acres), West Linwood Walk (345 acres), Goddes- 

 hill Bailiwick (231 acres), East Bailiwick (409! acres), South Bailiwick 

 (589 acres), Inne Bailiwick (540 acres), total 5,290^ acres. All these 

 various woods were catalogued as to their acreage, description, and the 

 condition of the crops thereon (vide also p. 38). During the first year of 

 Elizabeth's reign (1558) there was passed An Act that Timber shall not be 

 felled to make Coals for burning of Iron (anno i, cap. xv.), which applied 

 to any 'Timber-tree or Timber-trees of Oak, Beech, or Ash' growing 

 within fourteen miles of the sea or of any navigable river or stream. In 



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