FORESTRY 161 



common right was deemed most hurtful. In the 

 twenty-sixth year of Elizabeth an Exchequer 

 order was issued, with the view of checking the 

 practice, that " no inhabiters of any house newly 

 builded since the beginning of the Queen's reign 

 shall be allowed any wood in the same Forest to 

 be burnt and expended therein." 



The right is thus limited to houses that stood 

 when Queen Elizabeth came to the throne, in- 

 cluding such reconstructions and renewals as have 

 been rendered necessary during the lapse of years. 



This right of common was formerly the subject 

 of great abuses. Whole trees of beech, or even 

 of oak, were assigned as representing so many 

 loads, and were quite unlawfully sold or made 

 use of for any purpose rather than that of the 

 necessary fuel of the house to which they were 

 assigned. In later years the fuel wood has 

 always been cut and stacked by the Crown, and 

 good timber is never included in the assignments, 

 so that it is at least fuel wood, and fuel wood only, 

 that is now carried off. 



But the right is at the present date more 

 injurious than ever, although so much money has 

 been sunk in reducing the number of claims, 

 because the area of " open and unenclosed woods " 

 from whence the supply can be drawn is also 

 become so much reduced, that the tax falls far 



