THE FOREST IN DANGER 15 



instead of the pasturage being increased by the 

 removal of the deer, the contrary was the case. 

 The deer had been invaluable in keeping down the 

 growth of holly, more particularly, and of other 

 rough undergrowth, which after their removal 

 began to encroach upon the lawns, where alone 

 the best pasturage grows. It is indeed an actual 

 fact that there is less pasturage in the open 

 Forest now, when 6000 deer have been taken 

 off it, than there was when they were alive, 

 grazing alongside the cattle, because their valu- 

 able aid in keeping back the rough growth from 

 the pasture has been lost. This result was fore- 

 seen by neither side at the time. Further, as 

 the new plantations under the Act began to be 

 made, and the cattle excluded from consider- 

 able areas, the commoners began to grumble, 

 although this was absolutely in accordance with 

 the settlement they had agreed to. Altogether the 

 commoners and the local landowners began to 

 feel that they had made a bad bargain by the 

 Act which they had agitated for in 1851. 

 What they had petitioned for, and obtained, was 

 not as good a thing as they imagined, and, 

 moreover, they did not like to pay the price they 

 had agreed to give for it. 



So agitations, local and political, were rife 

 within ten years after the passing of the 1851 



