A HISTORY OF HAMPSHIRE 



Sussex has proportionately more woods than Hants, but the latter is 

 one of the best wooded counties in the kingdom, and it certainly 

 possesses the forests of greatest historical and national interest. Deduct- 

 ing the 27,367 acres of woods on Crown forest lands from the total 

 acreage of 125,674 acres for the woodlands of the county, this gives 

 98,307 acres as the area of the woods and plantations belonging to private 

 landowners. But beyond this bare fact as to acreage no statistics, official 

 or other, have yet been collected regarding the precise extent of the 

 woodlands on the different estates, or regarding the nature, age, and 

 treatment of the high woods, copses, and coppices. Endeavours have 

 been made to obtain returns regarding the woods and plantations from 

 the owners of estates, but the sum total of the information received from 

 those who have kindly given the returns asked for is so meagre that it 

 fails entirely to furnish any conspectus for the county. Such details as 

 have been made available will be found on pp. 46670. 



Owing to their proximity to the naval dockyards at Portsmouth and 

 to their being within easy reach by water of those on the Thames, the 

 Hants woods and forests furnished large supplies of oak for the mainten- 

 ance of the navy throughout the many centuries during which England was 

 mainly dependent on the supply of home-grown timber for ship-building. 

 But the records of the past all show convincingly enough that for over 

 350 years at least there was a constant danger of the demand far ex- 

 ceeding the possible supply. This is not only proved by the passing of 

 such statutes as those of 1543, 1558, 1698, 1715 and 1766, but also by 

 what is said in such works as Harrison's Description of England (1577), 

 Evelyn's Syfoa (1662), Driver's Agriculture of the County of Hants (1794), 

 Lewis's Historical Inquiries (1811), and most completely and authori- 

 tatively of all, so far as the royal forests of England and Wales were con- 

 cerned, in the Seventeen Reports of the Commissioners appointed to 

 enquire into the Woods, Forests and Land Revenues of the Crown 



1 Appendices Nos. 14 to 24 to the Eleventh Report, dated 6th February, 1792, 

 give the following details regarding the Hants forests and the national requirements 

 for ship-building : 



The imports of foreign timber were during the eighteenth century, and as they now 

 are, for by far the most part coniferous wood (pines and firs), but the imports of this 

 latter class increased about tenfold between 1720 and 1790. 



442 



