&umeD Finages in tf)e Jicfo Jfwtt. 155 



the poor animals to such a mutilation of their fore-paws 

 as rendered them unfit for hunting. This enactment 

 pressed hard upon the Norman and English barons, for 

 many of them depended chiefly for subsistence on their 

 bows and nets. 



Where the labour of man has ceased, vegetation soon 

 asserts her empire, and fields, when left to themselves, 

 become, according to their soil, either wild or stony, or 

 else covered with a dense growth of underwood, and 

 tall trees. Such was the case over the wide expanse 

 which had been rendered desolate ; the spaces of common 

 ground, with golden blossomed gorse and wild thyme, 

 continued such as they had been, but trees grew thick 

 and fast, the beautiful groves became woods in the course 

 of a short time, and the once cultivated country was 

 rapidly absorbed in the wilderness portions of Ytchtene. 

 A vast forest darkened the land, and all trace of ruined 

 homes and dismantled churches disappeared in many 

 parts, while in others, either the line of erections might 

 be traced by the elevation of the soil, or else large 

 blocks of stone, and here and there a broken arch, or 

 doorway, long pointed out the site of a church or castle. 

 Names, too, are even now retained, with the recollection of 

 their own sad histories. Church-place and Church-moore 

 seems to mark the solitary spots as the sites of ancient 

 buildings, where the Anglo-Saxons worshipped and dwelt 

 in peace, before the stern decree of the unrelenting 

 conqueror razed the sacred edifices. Thompson's 



