A HISTORY OF HAMPSHIRE 



formerly Red Deer kept, but there have not been any for upwards of 30 

 years past, Part of what remained . . having been removed to 

 Windsor ; and the Remainder given by the Lieutenant to a Gentleman 1 

 in the Neighbourhood.' Earlier in the century a previous grantee, 

 General Howe, ' turned out some German wild boars and sows in his 

 forests, to the great terror of the neighbourhood, and, at one time, a wild 

 bull or buffalo ; but the country rose upon them and destroyed them.' 2 

 Owing to the results of the Commission that sat from 1787 to 1793, 

 many plantations of Scots pine were made in Wolmer Forest, which are 

 now mature woods, often of fine growth. 



The year 1776 is memorable in the history of arboriculture in 

 Hants as being the date of the reintroduction of Scots pine (Pinus syfoes- 

 fris), after it had become extinct ages before. The first plantation made 

 then was in Ocknell Clump, an old ' encoppicement ' replanted in 1776, 

 though probably the pines in Boldrewood also date from about the same 

 time. The plantation of firs (pines) and larch was strongly recommended 

 by the Commission of 178793, but no such use of the Scots pine was 

 made on a large scale until after the passing of George III.'s Act 

 for the Increase and Preservation of Timber in the Dean and New Forests, 

 in 1808, when commissions were issued in 1809, 1814 and 1819 for 

 extensive planting, amounting in all to some 5,250 acres. Parts of these, 

 however, had already been enclosed under previous commissions, and 

 were merely included within the fences of the new enclosures. Most of 

 these plantations are now very flourishing oak woods, but having been 

 grazed for many years by cattle are without undercovert of any kind 

 and are not making fine timber. Since then the Scots pine, one of the 

 kinds of trees best suited for poor, sandy soil, has been introduced so 

 largely into Hants and other southern counties as to be one of the most 

 characteristic features of all sandy and moorland tracts, spreading itself 

 naturally wherever it gets any fair chance of doing so. 



In 1848 a committee of the House of Commons discussed the New 

 Forest, and after two sessions of deliberation issued the result of their 

 enquiries in the form of evidence with appendices, but without any com- 

 plete report. The tendency, however, of the interim report made in 

 1848, and of the draft reports discussed in 1849, seems to indicate that 

 the committee was in favour of disaffbrestation. When the Royal 

 Commission of 1850 (Lord Portman's) resulted in the 'Deer Removal 

 Act ' of 1851, the prospects of arboriculture in the New Forest became 

 more hopeful ; but the provisions then made (vide p. 432) for enclosing 

 10,000 acres for plantation, and subsequently throwing it open and en- 

 closing other 10,000 acres thus bringing up the total area which might 

 be enclosed to 12,000 (1698) and 20,000 (1851), or 32,000 acres in all 

 were frustrated by the action of the commoners and the public generally. 

 By the time about 5,000 acres had been planted, the Act of 1851 had 

 been practically repealed by the passing of the Amending Act in 1877, 



1 Mr. Bonham of Petersfield. Letter ix. 



454 



