8 THE NEW FOREST 



This great tract of 92,000 acres is divided 

 into the following classes of lands : 



Acres. 



Open heath and pasture .... 39,678 



Open lands with timber .... 5,300 



Plantations enclosed 11,138 



open 6,532 



Freehold lands of the Crown . . . 2,089 



Private property within the Forest . . 27,658 



92,395 



Over the whole of the 64,737 acres which are 

 Crown property, the members of public have the 

 privilege of roaming at will on horseback, or on 

 foot, with or without wheeled transport, so long 

 as they do no harm and infringe none of the 

 very few regulations that exist for the protec- 

 tion of the public property. 



There are divided interests in various por- 

 tions of the lands described above. There is 

 first the right of the Crown, which is that of 

 the absolute owner of the whole 64,737 acres 

 that is to say, over the whole Forest less the 

 27,658 acres of private lands. 



Secondly, there is the above-mentioned privi- 

 lege of all loyal subjects, amounting to a practi- 

 cal though not a legal right to wander in 

 right of the Crown, not as against it, over the 

 whole of the Crown property except those free- 



