THE CROWN AND COMMONERS 11 



the New Forest Act of 1851, generally known as 

 the Deer Removal Act. 



This Act, which followed upon a comprehen- 

 sive inquiry by a Parliamentary Committee 

 known as " Lord Duncan's Committee," com- 

 pletely transformed the whole character of the 

 Forest. Up to that time it had been maintained 

 (at considerable cost, it is true) as a vast and 

 beautiful park, well stocked with deer and full of 

 woods of fine timber, and also others of more 

 scrubby and inferior trees which had no little 

 beauty of their own, if their money value was 

 small. The Crown's rights to enclose land for 

 the growth of timber had only been exercised to 

 the extent of some 2000 acres, and this had re- 

 sulted in the formation of oak woods of about 

 150 years old, equal in beauty to any part of the 

 Forest. The whole forest was maintained on 

 Royal lines as a beautiful domain, in a condition 

 now lost and ever to be regretted, but at that 

 date difficult to defend from the practical .point 

 of view. 



The Sovereign had long ceased to make any 

 use of the Forest for purposes of sport. The 

 general public hardly knew of its existence, and 

 before the days even of railway accommodation, 

 visitors to the Forest must have been few indeed. 

 The commoners clamoured for the removal of the 



