ANCIENT FORESTS. 9 



mouth, Bishop of St Asaph in the twelfth century, alleges 

 that at a time long anterior to this the Britains were a 

 oiviHsed and settled people, there is much to lead us to 

 conclude that at that period the country throughout much 

 of its extent was forest, and moorland, and marsh, 



" The Romans," writes the author of 'English Forests 

 and Forest Trees,' a work published anonymously in 

 1853, which I shall have occasion to quote freqiiently 

 in the sequel, "were not mighty hunters, and during 

 the time they occupied Britain they appear to have used 

 the forests only for purposes of utility. They had, if we 

 are to believe some historians, iron furnaces in the forest 

 of Dean ; and through that forest ran one of their great 

 roads. They must also have required a large supply of 

 timber for their galleys, especially in the neighbourhood 

 of such ports as Chester, subject to sudden and frequent 

 incursions of the native inhabitants, who had taken refuge 

 in , Wales. But no forest boundaries were marked by 

 them, no enclosures were made, and the woodland parts 

 of the country remaiiied as they were under the Britons. 



"When the Saxons came, this state of things was 

 entirely altered. That hardy race were hunters from 

 their childhood. They loved to chase the wild boar and 

 the deer through these primeval forests ; and they talked of 

 their exploits in hunting with as much pride as of their 

 daring deeds in war. They loved to burnish their hunt- 

 ing weapons, and to keep their horses and hounds in a 

 high state of training. Both kings and nobles delighted 

 in the pleasures of the chase; and among their highest 

 accomplishments, and the part of their education most 

 carefully attended to, was reckoned skill, courage, and 

 address in hunting. In Asser's 'Life of King Alfred' 

 this is specially referred to. 



" The forest hunting grounds of the Saxcns extended 

 over many woodland districts, whose character in our days 

 is entirely changed. The Saxon noble had his large house 

 or hall built in the forest, which supplied the timber of 

 which it was constructed. Here, with his numerous re- 



