3 io THE ROYAL FORESTS OF ENGLAND 



reign, both Alice Holt and Woolmer forests were under the 

 same keeper, Adam Gurdon. They seem to have been well 

 stocked with both red and fallow deer, and also heavily tim- 

 bered. Adam Gurdon, in 1273, had to deliver two bucks at 

 Windsor Castle, as the king's children were staying there. In 

 1276 and 1277 the same keeper was instructed to give facilities 

 to a royal huntsman who was sent down with his dogs to take 

 harts for the king's household in the forests of Alice Holt and 

 Woolmer ; and in the following year he had to dispatch 

 thirty oaks fit for timber towards the rebuilding of Winchester 

 Castle. 



The sixth report of the woods and forests commission, issued 

 in 1790, devotes eighty-eight folio pages to these two Hamp- 

 shire forests. The commissioners cite the perambulation of 

 this joint forest made in 1300 as reduced from the wider limits 

 of earlier reigns. A perambulation of 1 1 Charles I. gives 

 practically the same bounds. The whole area within the 

 forest is returned as 15,493 acres, but of that quantity 6,799 

 acres were in private hands. Reference is made to a justice 

 seat held n Charles I., and to swainmote courts in the 

 reigns of James I. and Charles I. The administration and 

 customs of the forest corresponded with the general use. 

 Since the year 1777 the timber had been very largely used for 

 the navy ; it was taken by road, about ten miles, to Godal- 

 ming, where the river Wey was navigable, and thence to the 

 dockyards on the Thames. The lieutenant of the forest 

 (Lord Stawell) considered the deer his own, There were then 

 about 800 fallow deer in Alice Holt ; the red deer used to be 

 found in Woolmer Forest, but the latter were removed to 

 Windsor about 1760. In the appendix there is a list of the 

 lieutenants or keepers of the forest from 45 Elizabeth, and 

 very full particulars as to the sale, extent, and value of the 

 timber. All kinds of cattle were admitted to pasture save 

 sheep. 



BERE FOREST 



The forest of Bere extended northwards from the Portsdown 

 Hills. According to a perambulation made in 1688, it included 

 about 16,000 acres. The southern ward, in early days, often 

 went by the name of Porchester forest. 



