FORESTRY 



' to a large size and clean in its wood. It is much valued for inlaying cabinet work and 

 turners' uses." 



In regard to plantations in general he points out that 



if under this, we include grounds immediately attached to the seats of noblemen and gentlemen 

 resident in the county, numerous are the planters who have screened the bleak spots of the Cotswolds, 

 and have improved and adorned the general face of the county. But considering this part of the 

 inquiry in an agricultural view there are no instances in the county of considerable tracts of waste (the 

 forest excepted) being planted with the prospect of a future return in timber, whilst in every year many 

 acres of beech-woods are destroyed and given up to the plough. 



Mr. Rudge also gives an interesting description of the systems or planting and of the manage- 

 ment of coppice-woods l then employed, especially noticing that used by J. Raymond Barker, esq., 

 at Fairford. He further draws the attention of the planter to the walnut (Juglans regia) both for its 

 timber and fruit. It was particularly abundant in Arlingham parish, but as the county had been 

 ransacked for this wood by the Birmingham gun-makers, the stock of walnut-timber was much 

 diminished and ' only here and there a solitary walnut tree seen growing.* 



To resume the History of the Forest of Dean after 1808, provision was in 1819 made for the 

 better Collection and Recovery of the Gale Rents in the Forest of Dean (59 Geo. Ill, c. 86) payable by 

 the miners, and in 1831 was passed An Act for ascertaining the Boundaries of the Forest of Dean and 

 for inquiring into the Rights and Privileges claimed by the Free Miners of the Hundred of St. Briavefs 

 and for other Purposes (l & 2 Will. IV, c. 12), the terms of which were extended in 1833 

 (3 & 4 Will. IV, c. 38) and 1834 (4 & 5 Will. IV, c. 59). In 1836 the office of Constable 

 of the Castle of St. Briavel's was vested in the First Commissioner of Woods and Forests, 

 and that of Keeper of the Deer in the Forest was vested in the Commissioners (6 & 7 

 Will. IV, c. 3), who were also in 1838 empowered to confirm the Tithes to and to grant 

 Leases of Encroachments in the Forest (l & 2 Vic. c. 42), their procedure being in accor- 

 dance with An Act for regulating the opening and working of Mines and Quarries in the 

 Forest of Dean and Hundred of St. BriavePs (l & 2 Vic. c. 43), sanctioned on the same day, 

 27 July, 1838. Two Acts were passed relative to the Forest of Dean in 1842, for the relief of the 

 Poor in the Forest (5 & 6 Vic. c. 48), and to divide the Forest . . . into Ecclesiastical Districts 

 (c. 65), but neither of these affected the wood and timber. In 1845, Dean Forest and the New 

 Forest were (14 & 15 Vic. c. 42) especially exempted from the provisions of the Act to facilitate 

 the Inclosure and Improvement of Commons (8 & 9 Vic. c. 1 1 8, sect. 13). The Forest of Dean was 

 not specifically affected by the Act of 1851 to make better Provision for the Management of the 

 Woods, Forests, etc., nor was it affected at all by The Deer Removal Act, 1851, which only applied 

 to the New Forest ; but in 1852 the status of the Commissioners of Woods and Forests, in respect 

 of Dean Forest and other royal properties, was determined by An Act to alter and amend certain Acts 

 relating to the Woods, Forests, and Land Revenues of the Crown (15 & 16 Vic. C. 62), while 

 their powers were extended by An Act to authorise the letting Parts of the Royal Forests of Dean and 

 Woolmer, etc. (18 & 19 Vic. c. 16). In 1861, cap. 43 of 1838 was altered and amended by An 

 Act to make further Provision for the Management of Her Majesty's Forest of Dean, and of the Mines 

 and Quarries therein and in the Hundred of St. BriaveFs (24 & 25 Vic. c. 40), and in that same 

 year were passed the two statutes now having general application to the protection of woods, trees, 

 ice., namely An Act to consolidate and amend the Statute Laws of England and Ireland relating to 

 Larceny and other similar Offences (c. 96 sect. 1 6 as to ' any Forest, Chase, or Purlieu ' ; sects. 3 1 , 

 32, 33, and 35 as to trees and woods) and the similar Act relating to Malicious Injuries to Property 

 with regard to ornamental trees and shrubs (c. 97, sects. 20, 21, 22 and 53). In 1866, power 

 was given to the Commissioners of Woods to grant licences for hunting, hawking, fishing, and 

 fowling in any part of the New Forest and the Forest of Dean (29 & 30 Vic. c. 62, sect. 5), 

 while in the same year a statute was passed to extend the Provisions of the Acts for the Inclosure, 

 Exchange, and Improvement of Land to certain Portions of the Forest of Dean called IValmore Common 

 and The Bearce Common, and for authorising Allotments in lieu of the Forestal Rights of Her Majesty 

 in and over such Commons (c. 70). In 1871, further provision was made for the opening and 

 working of mines in the forest and the hundred of St. Briavel's in The Dean Forest (Mines) 

 Act (34 & 35 Vic. c. 85); but the friction was, and continued to be, so great that in 1874 

 a Select Committee of the House of Commons was appointed to inquire into and report on Dean 

 Forest. 



In May, 1889, another Select Committee of the House of Commons was appointed to 

 inquire into the Woods and Forests and Land Revenues of the Crown, whose reports were 



1 It may be mentioned that at the present time (1906) the value of coppice-wood has fallen from various 

 circumstances to a very low level, 2 to 7 per acre, according to locality and quality, being the ruling prices, 

 while in some parts it is absolutely unsaleable (ex informatione Mr. Philip Baylis). 



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