CHAPTER X 



ROYAL VISITS 



OF these the records I can discover are not half 

 so numerous as one would expect. Of course the 

 Norman kings did not bring the New Forest 

 under their forest laws for nothing. Moreover, as 

 regards their hunting, they had only followed in 

 the line of their predecessors. Canute, no doubt, 

 first used "Ytene," as was the ancient name of 

 the New Forest ; and indeed it is said to have 

 been at Southampton, when holding court there, 

 that he tried his little experiment of controlling 

 the tide. That William II died in the Forest 

 we all know, but there is not much record of 

 the visits of his immediate successors to the 

 newly made Forest. Henry III' seems to have 

 patronised the Forest of Clarendon chiefly, but 

 to have procured from the New Forest a great 

 number of oak shingles for the roofing of his 

 house there ; but his son Edward I spent much 

 time at Lyndhurst from 1278 to 1289. Many 

 documents of state are dated thence, and, as I 



have before stated, his Queen, Eleanor, spent 



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