§6 *HE FOEBSTS 01^ ENGLAlJ£). 



anxious Parliament took measures for increasing the sup- 

 ply of shipbuilding timber, and enacted that at the peri- 

 odic cutting of the Windsor copses twelve ' standils or 

 stores ' per acre should be left to form a future wood. It 

 is probable that the fencilig of the park from the forest 

 occurred long before the reign of Qaeen Elizabeth. Re- 

 cords relating to this domain earlier than the time of 

 Charles I. do not exist, as the whole of those most inter- 

 esting documents were destroyed during the Civil War by 

 the parliamentary soldiers, who held the Castle through- 

 out the struggle, and who found the papers useful mate- 

 rial for lighting their fire. Prince Rupert used his utmost 

 efforts to dislodge the destructionists, but without success. 

 In the next reign he became a keeper of one of the forest 

 walks, 'and thirty other old soldiers occupied the Great 

 Park, which they farmed on the five-verst system, the 

 marks of their furrows being still visible. 



" According to a survey of 1661, the king enjoyed a right 

 to twelve loads of hay, ' to be taken yearly from the mea- 

 dow called Runnymede,' for the feeding of the deer. The 

 principal forest walks were Cranbourne, New Lodge, and 

 Bagshot. Lord Mordauut was the head keeper and con- 

 stable of the Castle ; the arable land was let to the old 

 soldiers at £200 a year. It was a good time for timber, 

 inasmuch as John Evelyn, a zealous royalist, had recently 

 delivered his ' Discourses on Forest Trees ' before the 

 Royal Society, and improvements were afoot. Fences 

 were now formed round the cultivated fields at Windsor, 

 hedgerow elms were planted, plantations filled up, and 

 grass seeds sown. Between the years 1670 and 1680 Eve- 

 lyn was a frequent guest at Windsor Castle, and the king 

 was constantly engaged planting rows of elms on the 

 French plan, which had been previously borrowed for the 

 adornment of Sayes Court. Before the time of Evelyn 

 the country must have been very poorly ornamented with 

 timber. The magnificent forests of ' nature's ' planting had 

 been sadly diminished and cut up ; the hedgerow trees 

 were horribly mangled and trimmed up for firewood, the 



