THE TREES OF THE FOREST 73 



In the hedgerows of this part of old Duffield forest, and in the 

 present parks and woods of Alderwasley, maple trees still grow 

 to an unusual size. 



It is but rarely that the maple is found in England of any 

 size. William Gilpin, the author of Forest Scenery ', says of it : 

 "The maple is an uncommon tree, though a common bush." 

 The finest maple tree in the kingdom is the one in Boldre 

 churchyard (Plate xn.); it stands appropriately over Gilpin's 

 grave; he was rector of Boldre for twenty years, dying in 1804. 



The beech is named with a fair amount of frequency in forest 

 accounts ; there were beech woods of some size in Windsor, 

 Pickering, Northamptonshire, and Clarendon forests, and it is 

 often named in Hampshire records. The Windsor records 

 show that beech was used for shipbuilding purposes. 



The birch, alder, crab-apple, hornbeam, ash, blackthorn, 

 whitethorn, and holly occur from time to time". The hazel was 

 common everywhere ; in Pickering it was sufficiently abundant 

 to make the nut geld, or payments for licence to gather nuts, 

 an item of some importance in the forest accounts. The elm is 

 of very rare and late occurrence. 



The dissolution of the monasteries by Henry VIII. proved 

 a severe blow to the woods in the forests. A large number of 

 these woods, some in almost every forest, had belonged to the 

 religious houses. No sooner had they passed to the Crown or 

 into private hands than the greater part of them were cleared 

 of timber. In 1543 an Act for the preservation of timber was 

 passed, the preamble of which laid emphasis on its great decay 

 and likelihood of scarcity, as well for building houses and 

 ships as for firewood. It was enacted that in copse of under- 

 wood, felled at twenty-four years' growth, there were to be left 

 twelve standrells or store oaks on each acre, or in default of 

 oaks, so many elm, ash, or beech, etc. When cut under 

 fourteen years' growth, the ground was to be enclosed or pro- 

 tected for four years. Wood cut from fourteen to twenty-four 

 years of age was to be enclosed for six years. Cutting trees 

 on waste or common lands was to be punished by forfeiting 

 6s. 8d. for each felled tree. This and other Acts of Henry VIII. 

 and Edward VI. were extended and confirmed by the i3th 

 of Elizabeth cap. 25. A later Elizabethan Act provided for 

 the whipping of idle persons cutting or spoiling any wood, 



