A HISTORY OF HAMPSHIRE 



1570 Henry VIII. 's Act was amended by increasing the time of enclosure 

 for regeneration (13 Eliz. cap. xxv. sec. 18-19) 5 an( ^ m I ^ I (anno 43 

 Eliz. cap. vii.) An Act to avoid and prevent Divers Misdemeanours in idle 

 and lewd Persons ordained, among other things, 'punishment for illicit 

 cutting and mischievous spoiling of woods, trees or poles.' Queen Eliza- 

 beth alienated portions of the forest lands by letting them on lease or in 

 fee-farm, and this led to a good deal of wastage even though the leases 

 stipulated that the woodland tracts were to be preserved as woods or 

 coppices. The same policy was continued when James I. ascended the 

 throne. It was general, in fact, during subsequent reigns down to 1701, 

 when it was enacted (i Anne, cap. vii. sec. 5) that no 'Grant, Lease or 

 other Assurance' should be made 'of any Manors, Messuages, Lands, 

 Tenements, Rents, Tithes, Woods, or other Hereditaments (Advowsons of 

 Churches and Vicarages alone excepted) ' unless it were made for a term 

 'not exceeding one and thirty years, or three lives, or for some term of 

 years determinable upon one, two, or three lives.' 1 Ever since Edward 

 IV.'s statute of 1482, regarding enclosure for seven years, and intended 

 to check ' waste,' there had been a gradual clearance of the woodlands 

 for transformation into arable and pasture land. Henry VIII. legislated 

 to check this, but the tendency towards clearance received a fresh impetus 

 under the agricultural policy of Elizabeth and James I., although at the 

 same time the latter, who had already in Scotland continued the attention 

 given by his predecessors (James II., James IV. and James V.) to the 

 preservation and improvement of woods, more than once issued procla- 

 mations relative to the 'storing' of timber-trees when the copsewoods 

 were felled, and generally to give better effect to the intentions of Henry 

 VIII.'s Act of 1543. 



That James I. was evidently very anxious to preserve the timber in 

 the woodlands is clearly shown in the instructions issued to a Commission 

 concerning ' Woods' (State Papers, Domestic : 1607), which orders that 

 'These things are to be considered in the execution of the Commission by 

 the Commissioners and the Jury, that is to say A Survey of the number 

 of Coppice woods ; how many acres each Coppice containeth ; of how 

 many years' growth the same is ; what every Coppice is worth by the 

 acre ; in whose possession the same is ; if granted to any person, then for 

 what term and upon what consideration ; whether the trees and the 

 standels be preserved in every Coppice according to the Statute ; and 

 what waste and spoil hath been made in the same Coppices or any of 

 them, and by whom. ... To consider how many acres of Coppice 

 Woods will be necessarily reserved for the fencing and enclosing of new 



1 It was otherwise, however, with specific regard to the New Forest. By the Act of 1698, more 

 particularly referred to on pp. 430, 451, it was decreed that 'To the end the said Forest and premises 

 may be perpetually estated and preserved in the Crown for public use as aforesaid, and may not be 

 granted to any private use or Benefit, be it further enacted that in case any person or persons whatso- 

 ever shall presume to take or shall obtain any gift, grant or estate or interest of and in the said Inclosures 

 or Wastes or any woods or trees growing thereon, every such gift, grant, estate or interest shall if so facto 

 be null and void, and the person or persons so taking or obtaining the same shall and is hereby made and 

 declared utterly disabled and incapable to have, hold or enjoy any such gift, grant, estate or interest, 

 etc.' 



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