A HISTORY OF HAMPSHIRE 



divers persons for the making of 10 furlongs 24 perches round the said 

 coppice for the safe keeping of the spring or stools thereof.' Four years 

 later in the account of John Raggott, Richard Samar and John Lathbury 

 a charge appears 'for the making of 337 perches of beechen palings 

 round the coppice aforesaid (in this case Walbridge), together with 3^. 6d. 

 paid for the cutting of oaks for posts and rails necessary for the same 

 works, and also 12s. for the making of nine gates to the said coppice.' 

 Similar records as to coppices in the New Forest are very numerous, and 

 prove that the practice of enclosing woods and fostering the growth of 

 both timber and underwood was carefully attended to. 



A very distinct advance was, however, made in Henry VIII.'s reign, 

 by the passing ofihedctfor the Preservation of Woods in 1543 a lengthy 

 Act for those days, as it consisted of twenty-one sections. The key-note 

 to the tenour of the whole Act, best known as the ' Statute of Woods,' 

 was struck in the preamble : 



The King our Sovereign Lord perceiving and right well knowing the great 

 decay of timber and woods universally within this his realm of England to be such, 

 that unless speedy remedy in that behalf be provided, there is great and manifest 

 likelihood of scarcity and lack as well of timber for building, making, repairing, and 

 maintaining of houses and ships, and also for fewel and fire-wood, for the necessary 

 relief of the whole commonalty of this his said realm. 



The main provisions of this great arboricultural Act were as follows: 



That in and upon all and singular several woods, commonly called coppice woods 

 or under-woods, which from and after the feast of St. Michael the archangel, which 

 shall be in the year of our Lord God 1544, shall be felled at twenty-four years 

 growing or under, there shall be left standing and unfelled, for every acre of wood that 

 shall be felled within the said coppice, twelve standils or storers of oak ; (3) and if 

 there be not so many standils or storers of oak there, that then there shall be left so 

 many of other kind, that is to say, of elm, ash, asp or beech, as shall make up the said 

 number of twelve standils or storers, likely to prove and to be timber-trees ; (4) the 

 same standils or storers to be of such standils or storers, as have been left there standing 

 at any the felling of the same coppice woods or under-woods, in times past ; and in 

 case there be no such standils or storers there standing, which were there left at the 

 last felling of the same coppice or under-woods, then the same standils or storers there 

 to be left, shall be left at this now next felling of the said coppice woods or under- 

 woods, of such most likeliest oaks, and if there be not sufficient of oaks, then of the 

 most likeliest elms, ash, asp or beech, to prove and to be timber-trees, as shall grow 

 within any such several woods, coppice or under-woods ; (5) and that the same stan- 

 dils or storers so left, shall be preserved, and not felled or cut down, till they and every 

 of them shall be of ten inches square within three foot of the ground ; (6) upon pain 

 that every owner of every such standils and storers having an estate of inheritance, or 

 an estate for term of life of freehold, or by copy of court roll, or for years, in the 

 ground or soil where the same standils or storers shall grow, causing or commanding 

 any such coppice woods or under-woods to be felled or cut down, and not leaving the 

 said standils or storers there standing in form aforesaid, to lose and forfeit for every 

 standil and storer so not left standing in the said coppice woods or under-woods 

 iii. s. iv. d. ; (7) and upon pain that every owner, as is aforesaid, of any such coppice 

 woods or under-woods, causing or commanding any of the said standils or storers, so 

 left as is abovesaid, to be cut down, contrary to the form of this act, to forfeit and 

 lose for every of the said standils or storers which shall be so cut down, iii. s. iv. d. ; 

 (8) the one half of which said forfeiture to be to the king our Sovereign Lord, and the 

 other half to be to the party that will sue for the same in any court of record by action 

 of debt, bill, plaint or information, in the which action, bill, plaint and information, no 

 protection, wager of law nor essoin shall be admitted or allowed. 



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