VOL. LXI.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 113 



of St. Mary de Dean, This abbey, together with Dean Magna, (alias Mitchell 

 Dean), and Dean Parva, all lie in the same hundred with the forest (the hundred 

 of Saint Briannell), and are included in the ecclesiastical deanery, called Forest: 

 where, therefore can the Dene of Flexeley be placed, but at the forest in which 

 it was situated, and from which it derived half of its appellation? And what 

 pretence can a Dene in Hampshire, or a Dean in Lancashire, have to a place in 

 a record, which relates only to the abbey of Saint Mary de Dene, in the forest 

 of Dean? But all such reasonings are unnecessary: the point is ascertained 

 beyond the possibility of a doubt, by Henry the 2d's confirmation of the original 

 grant. The King, by this record, confirms to the monks, locum qui dicitur 

 Flexleia ubi abbatia fundata est, by the title of Locum quendam in foresta de 

 henk. He afterwards goes on, to give them omnia asiamenta in eadem foresta 

 niea de DenS ; and then he particularly subjoins, et de eadem foresta dedi eis 

 Decimam Castanearum mearum. Can any words possibly be more explicit than 

 these? Andean Mr. Harrington aver against the testimony of an authentic 

 record ? . But, though the Dena of the record does mean the forest of Dean, 

 Mr. Barrington has still an objection in reserve; and asserts that there are not 

 the least vestiges of any such trees in this forest at present. But is Mr. Barrington 

 sure there are no vestiges of chestnut trees in the forest? Did Mr. Barrington 

 inspect into every part of this ample area? And did no trees, no stumps, no 

 stools, escape his eye in this wide unbounded range? But the fact appears 

 otherwise. There are not merely stumps, not merely stools, of chestnut trees; 

 but actual and absolute trees of chestnut existing at this day, in the forest of 

 Dean. 



In a letter to me, dated Dec. 10, 1770, from the Rev. Mr. William Crawley, 

 resident at, and minister of Flaxley (uncle to Thornas Crawley Bovey, Esq. the 

 present owner of Flaxley Abbey); is the following account: — " In this very 

 forest and near Flaxley is a parcel of land, about 3 or 4 hundred acres, which 

 is still denominated chestnut: though neither chestnut, nor any other kind of tree 

 is to be seen there, excepting what we call underwood or coppice, mostly hazel. 

 Indeed in many places of the forest, I find chestnut trees are (sparingly) to be met 

 with; but within a few yards of the above spot, in a wood of my nephew's, are 

 many of remarkably fine growth." But, even if the fact had been as Mr. Bar- 

 rington hath stated it, the faith of record attesting the existence of chestnut trees 

 formerly, in the forest of Dean, was surely not to be superseded by the non- 

 existence of such trees at present ; they might have existed formerly, though 

 they do not exist at present. And the record explicitly assures us that they 

 did exist, and as early at least as the reign of Henry II. 



The chestnut tree, therefore, may still claim a natural relation to this island, 

 notwithstanding the two arguments of Mr. Barrington against it: and if we 



VOL. XIII. Q 



