FORESTRY 



and park of the old family of Strangways from whom the Earls of Ilchester are descended in the 

 female line. It is thus mentioned by Leland in the time of Henry VIII : 



This is a fair park hard by the manor place of Milbyri and yn this park is a pond, out of the wich 

 issueth a broketh, that with the course of a right few miles goith into Ivelle Rvyer. . . . Mr. 

 Strangways now and late began to builde richely at his commune dwelling House in Milbyri Park, 

 and caussed three thousand lode of free-stone to be fetched from Hamden Quarre nine myles of 

 thither."^ 



At the present time all kinds of forest trees indigenous to England grow luxuriantly in Mel- 

 bury park ; there are many of great age and size. The old historic oak tree has attained to the 

 immense girth of 40 ft. Four elms in front of the house, part of a group of seven trees, are from 

 120 to 125 ft. high, and about 27 ft. round the base of the trunk. Amongst timber in the park 

 that is still growing may be mentioned an oak 25 ft. high and 18 ft. in girth, and a poplar 30 ft. 

 high, 15 ft. in girth." 



Stock Gaylard Park (the Bishop of Worcester) is the oldest park in the county. William de 

 Cantilupe had a park here, within the forest bounds of Blackmoor in 1248.''* It is 75 acres in 

 extent, and is stocked with about fifty fallow deer. Some of the old timber, both oaks and elms, is 

 particularly fine. Recent measurements taken for this article show that one of the oaks has a girth 

 of 17 ft. 6 in. 5 ft. from the ground, whilst the boughs stretch out to a diameter of 100 ft. Another 

 oak has a girth of 17 ft. 2 in., whilst there are two elms with a girth of 14 ft. 



Bryanston Park (Lord Portman), which was inclosed in 1760, has an area of fifty acres; but a 

 few years ago an additional 152- adjoining acres was high fenced, where the deer are sometimes 

 admitted when their own keep falls short and a change of pasture seems desirable. Except for 

 landscape effect and making good the weak places in the old coverts, there has not been any exten- 

 sive planting on this estate for some years. 



With regard to the roe-deer, Dorset was evidently a favourite haunt in mediaeval days, 

 as may be judged from the venison presentments of the forests of Blackmoor and Powerstock cited 

 above. It is therefore particularly interesting to note that it is the one county in England where 

 this graceful indigenous breed of small deer now run wild in considerable numbers. After having 

 disappeared from Dorset for some two or three centuries, roe-deer were re-introduced at Milton 

 about the beginning of the nineteenth century, and now they roam freely about the woods of the 

 Vale of Blackmoor, under the general protection of the landowners. Occasionally they are seen in 

 other parts of the county. About 1870 some of these Dorset roe-deer wandered as far as the New 

 Forest, where a small herd is now established. In 1884 a few of these roe-deer were caught and 

 transferred to Epping Forest, where they are now established.^^ 



Several parks of the county, not now stocked with deer, have some claim on our attention, 

 more especially Lord Wimborne's beautifully timbered old park of Canford Manor, which incloses 

 about 800 acres. There were here two parks in Elizabethan days, distinguished as Great and 

 Little ; they are marked in Saxton's survey of 1575, and again by Speed in 16 lO. The Earl of 

 Shaftesbury has a nobly timbered park, of upwards of 400 acres, around St. Giles House ; Leland 

 noticed a park here, which was then held by Mr. Ashley, an ancestor of the Earls of Shaftesbury. 

 The small park and surrounding well-wooded hills, planted about a century ago, at Milton Abbas, 

 afford about 5,000 acres of beautiful woodland scenery. 



Other parks, all more or less well-wooded, are those of Holnest 130 acres. Holme Priory 80, 

 Kingston Lacy 420, Minterne House lOO, Moreton House 100, and Whatcombe House 160. 



A General View of the Agriculture of Dorset was prepared in 1793, by John Claridge, for the 

 Board of Agriculture. It was then estimated that woods and plantations covered 9,000 acres, that 

 86,000 acres were uncultivated or waste, and that 290,000 acres were ' Ewe Leas and Downs.' 

 The county is spoken of as ' extremely barren both in timber and wood,' nevertheless there were 

 several places appropriated to the growth of underwood, such as Duncombe in the Vale of Black- 

 moor, and Honeycombe Wood, near Sherborne. The underwood was cut at ten or twelve years' 

 growth, and produced about five or six pounds an acre for faggots. There was some fine oak 

 timber at Sherborne Castle, at Melbury, and in that part of the Vale of Blackmoor, in Mr. Sturt's 

 possession. Several noblemen and gentlemen had made plantations about their places of residence, 

 notably the Earl of Dorchester at Milton, Mr. Frampton at Moreton, and Mr. Portman at Bland- 

 ford ; nevertheless, Mr. Claridge considered that there was no part of England which he had ever 

 seen so much in want of ornamental and useful woodland as Dorset. He proceeds to point out that 

 most of the attempts at planting which he had seen have been upon too small a scale, and no sooner 

 have the westerly winds from the coast attacked them, than they become miserable and unthrifty ; 



'° Leland, Ittn. vii, 77 ; vi, 12. 



" From information kindly supplied by Mr. W. H. Wells, Lord Ilchester's agent. 



»» Pat. 32 Hen. Ill, m. 4. '» Cox, Royal Forests, 86. 



2 297 38 



