64 WILD WHITE CATTLE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 



Even in the less hilly districts more than half the 

 country was one vast forest, and in the north at least 

 these forests flanked the mountain ranges, extending 

 their wild influence, and, at the same time, rendering 

 them more inaccessible and wilder still. We have seen 

 already how, between the tenth and twelfth centuries, 

 great forests came up to the gates of London. A slight 

 sketch — and it must be one both slight and imperfect 

 at the best — may perhaps give some faint idea of the 

 savage state in which the central and northern parts of 

 the island of Britain then remained. 



Even in the very centre of England, where this 

 Apennine range ended, enormous forests clustered round 

 its southern point. Two-thirds, or nearly, of the county 

 of Stafford, in which it commences, was, even in re- 

 latively modern times, either moorlands or woodlands. 

 The northern part, going nearly up to Buxton, was the 

 first ; the central and eastern part the last. Harwood,* 

 in his edition of " Erdeswick's Survey of Staffordshire," 

 quotes from Sir Simon Degge, who says : " The moor- 

 lands are the more northerly mountainous part of the 

 county lying betwixt Dove and Trent ; the woodlands 

 are the more southerly level part of the county. Be- 

 tween the aforesaid rivers, including Needwood Forest, 

 with all its parks, are also the parks of Wichnor, 

 Chartley, Horecross, Bagots, Loxley,f and Paynesley, j 



* Erdeswick began his " Survey " in 1593. Sir Simon Degge was born 

 in 1612, became Sheriff of Derbyshire in 1673, and died in 1702. 



t Loxley is said to have been the birthplace of Robin Hood, who was 

 often called by the name of his native place — a thing not uncommon in 

 those days. It belonged to the Ferrers family. Tutbury, where he is said 

 to have courted and married a shepherdess, is not far distant in the same 

 neighbourhood. 



X Several others, and particularly Blithefield, might have been added. 



