6 BRITISH FOREST TREES 



ingdon), Dean, Micklewood, and Kingswood (Gloucester), 

 Which wood (Oxford), Bern wood and Clitern (Bucks), 

 Hainault and Epping (Essex), Savernake, Blakemore, 

 Bradon,and Pevisham (Wilts), Nerohe, Selwood and Mendip 

 (Somerset), Chute, Alice Holt, Bere, and New Forest or 

 Ytene (Hants), Gillingham, Cranbourne, and Blackmore 

 (Dorset), Dartmoor and Exmoor (Devon), Windsor (Berks), 

 Enfield (Middlesex), and the Weald of Kent, Andreas Wald, 

 or Coit Andred, comprising Norwood (Surrey), Tunbridge 

 (Kent), and Ashdown (Sussex). The only forest of 

 considerable extent in Wales appears to have been the 

 Radnor Great Forest in South Wales. 



After Magna Charta was drawn up, the Charta de foresta 

 (1216) removed some of the most glaring oppressions of 

 the forest laws, but they still remained very harsh and unjust 

 till a much later date. In Scotland the royal forests included 

 large tracts subject to the leges forestarum which, though 

 severe in themselves, were not quite so savage as those in 

 force in England. 



The destruction of woodlands went on more rapidly in 

 Britain than on the Continent. By the time of Henry VII. 

 only about one-third of the area of England remained under 

 forest, while, according to Holinshed, plantations for the 

 growth of timber for technical purposes were begun as early 

 as Henry VIII.'s time, when a statute (c. 35) enjoined re- 

 plantations of Forest Trees to cure the spoils and devastations 

 that have been made in the woods. By offering rewards for 

 the transformation of woodlands into arable land James I. 

 in the early part of the seventeenth century gave an immense 

 impulse to the national movement in this direction, whilst 

 subsequently Charles I.'s chronic want of money led to his 

 alienating by grant large portions of the royal woods, and 

 later on Cromwell's agricultural policy, the repeal of the 

 Charta dcforesta, and the abolition of the forest courts, gave 



