A HISTORY OF HAMPSHIRE 



estimated to cost 2,102 iBs. od., or 31,543 IGJ. od. for the whole 

 51,000 acres ; and the net income derivable after fifteen years was 

 estimated to be 21,600 per annum. 



In the year 1 609 a report was submitted by J. Norden ' to the 

 consideration of the Right Hon. the Lord High Treasurer of England 

 and Sir Julius Knight, Chancellor of His Majesty's Exchequer.' In this 

 report Norden recounts the result of an inspection he has made of the 

 New Forest and its coppices, but naively remarks that 'the felling there- 

 fore of any of the fellable Coppices may be offensive unto His Majesty 

 and therefore dangerous to the instrument unless His Majesty will be 

 pleased to manifest his princely consent by some warrantable declaration 

 of the same.' He goes on, however, with a most interesting and instruc- 

 tive account of the condition of the principal enclosures of that date 

 existing in the New Forest and of the fences surrounding them, most of 

 which required renewal, and the specification and cost of such renewal 

 is very closely computed. A quaint and interesting entry is that of 

 ' Holmsley Copse,' a name attached for many generations to that part of 

 the forest which grew the finest of ' holms ' or hollies. It runs thus : 

 'This Coppice so named containeth by the perch of i6| feet 106 acres. 

 ... It consisteth only of holly or Holm which are for the most part 

 very old, and by reason that the country people have taken the bark of 

 the most of them to make bird lime they are all decayed and dead and if 

 they be not taken they will utterly perish and the covert will be 

 destroyed, whereas the cutting in a seasonable time will revive and 

 continue the same.' This is an interesting record as to country life and 

 what was then called ' birding,' but it is also interesting as showing the 

 ancient knowledge, now so often forgotten, of the proper way to culti- 

 vate hollies and similar evergreens, viz. to cut and lop them so soon as 

 they show signs of decay. By this means, and by this only, such shrubs 

 may be kept alive till they attain great age and dimensions ; and it is to 

 this method of treatment, chiefly adopted for the purpose of browsing of 

 deer in winter, that the existence of the ancient and often very fine hol- 

 lies of the New Forest is to be attributed. Those who are familiar with 

 the forest will have noticed that most of these shrubs are found not far 

 from the old keepers' lodges. It was to browse their deer that they cut 

 these hollies as often as they would stand it, and they sought those near 

 home for obvious reasons. The method of cultivation was almost akin 

 to that of the lopping of the old willow pollards along the brooks of 

 Bucks and Berks, and the result is equally successful; but in the case of 

 the holly, where it is allowed to grow to its full dimensions, the effect 

 is not merely successful as a matter of cultivation but is also very beauti- 

 ful. In the report on Sloden Coppice he says that ' many young sapling 

 oaks and likely young ashes growing as they have been sheltered up 

 which in the demise ' (query, lease of the coppice ?) * are specially to be 

 reserved though now the keepers break off and cut off the principal 

 branches under colour of browse an abuse intolerable ! ' 



A further note on enclosing of New Forest plantations appears in 



448 



