142 THE NEW FOREST 



the Preservation of Woods" in 1543. The keynote 

 to the tenor of the whole Act, best known as the 

 "Statute of Woods," was struck in the pre- 

 amble : 



" The King our Sovereign Lord perceiving and 

 right well knowing the great decay of timber 

 and woods universally within this his realm of 

 England to be such that unless speedy remedy 

 in that behalf be provided there is great and 

 manifest likelihood of scarcity and lack as well 

 of timber for making repairing and maintaining 

 of houses and ships and also for fewel and fire- 

 wood for the necessary relief of the whole com- 

 monalty of this his said realm." 



And so the Act goes on to make provision that 

 no coppice woods should be cut until they arrived 

 at a certain maturity that when they were cut 

 a certain number of " storers or standils," to be 

 of oak wherever possible, should be left to each 

 acre that these standils should not be cut for 

 timber until they arrived at certain dimensions 

 and so forth, drawing up, indeed, a working plan 

 for every wood throughout the kingdom, to be 

 strictly followed on pain of a fine for every single 

 transgression, of no less then iiis. ivd. 



It will be noticed that in all these ancient 

 records, woods are always referred to as " coppices" 

 or encoppicement. That was the universal system 



