IN HAMPSHIRE HIGHLANDS 5 



There is Harewood Forest, not far short of two 

 thousand acres in extent, lying within our district ; 

 and there are portions of the large wood of Bentley 

 in the west, and Alice Holt a Royal forest, with 

 some fine timber and beautiful scenery, in the 

 east ; besides which there are many lesser woods 

 with unnumbered oak and hazel copses all over 

 the county. Woolmer I do not include in my 

 list ; its forest trees do not exist, whilst Waltham 

 Chase is somewhat a forest of the past, and the 

 best days, too, of Bere have long since passed. 

 Speed, in the quaint and no doubt laborious map 

 of Hampshire or 'Hantshire,' as he calls the 

 county apparently does not mark any of the 

 woods except the great historic ones, such as the 

 New Forest, used for the shipbuilding needs of 

 England. Nevertheless, Hampshire in his day 

 his map of Hampshire in my possession was 

 printed about the beginning of the seventeenth 

 century must have been a finely wooded 

 county. Chute was then one of the Royal 

 Forests, extending from Savernake in Wiltshire 

 far into North Hampshire. Only portions of 

 it are now to be seen, such as the wood described 

 in this book and one or two others in the east 



