FORESTRY 



lands subject to the reservation of his baronial rights of the chase as to 

 hunting ' hart and hind, wild boar, and their kinds.' So, too, with 

 regard to Nichol Forest in Eskdale ward. This was in the barony of 

 Lyddale, and was granted by Ranulph de Meschines to Robert de 

 Stutevill, from one of whose successors in the reign of King John, 

 Nicholas de Stutevill, the hunting ground there ' received the name 

 of Nichol forest which it bears to this day.' 1 



A survey of the oak trees in most of the royal forests was made 

 about 1565. In an inquisition held in 1588 concerning the chase 

 specified as the ' Foresta de Breirthwaite,' also known as Tarnhouse 

 forest or Tindale forest and adjoining the chase or ' forest of Geltesdale,' 

 it was said that ' there are, within the said forest, certain boundes or 

 dales of haye ground, &c. do amount unto 874 acres ; and there are 

 also in other waste, heath, and barren ground, within the said forest, 

 above a thousand acres.' But nothing is said of woodlands, which 

 evidently were non-existent. These so-called forests of Geltstone or 

 Geltsdale and Breirthwaite had been given to the priory of Hexham, 

 but when Henry VIII. dissolved the religious houses they were granted 

 to the barons of Gilsland. About a hundred years ago Geltsdale forest 

 is described as a considerable tract of mountainous land, chiefly heathy 

 pasture, with some extensive birch and alder woods in the lower 

 parts.* 



Another timber survey was ordered to be made in 1608 through- 

 out all the ' forests, parks, and chases belonging to His Majesty,' but in 

 this there is no mention of any timber belonging to the Crown, or over 

 which it had any lien under the forest laws, in any part of the four 

 northern counties. Probably only partially wooded near the base of 

 the hills, the woodlands once existing in the forest of Inglewood and in 

 the chases (locally known as forests) seem to have been gradually cleared 

 and completely ' wasted ' or ' assarted ' to tillage and pasturage by this 

 time. Plumpton Park, formerly the demesne land of the Crown, had 

 meanwhile been alienated. On 26 April 1625 Charles I. granted in fee 

 and perpetuity, ' all that the park or land of Plumpton, within the 

 forest of Inglewood, containing by estimation in meadow, pasture, and 

 arable ground 2,436 acres, and common of pasture in the forest of Ingle- 

 wood to the same appertaining' 3 ; so apparently the park of Plumpton 

 was then as unadorned with timber as the forest of Inglewood had 

 become. The manor and town of Penrith had been granted 

 in 1 397 to Ralph Nevill, Earl of Westmorland. It was forfeited in 

 1459, and again in 1471, when it was granted to Richard, Duke 

 of Gloucester, and became attached to the Crown in 1483. In 1616 

 ' the Honour of Penrith, with its rights, members, and appurten- 

 ances,' were demised in trust for Charles, Prince of Wales ; and in 

 1671 they were granted by Charles II. as part of Queen Catherine's 



1 Nicolson and Burn, op. cit. ii. 464. 



' Britton and Brayley, Beauties of England and Wales, 1802, hi. 138. 



* Nicolson and Burn, of. cit. ii. 419, 420. 



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