FORESTRY 



adapted to the quick growth of underwood. The woods are well fenced in, when cut, and preserved from 

 the bret of cattle, and also drained if necessary. As the growth of hop poles is not attended to, the woods are 

 cut in succession about every ten years, and the straight saplings of oak, ash, beech, sallow, birch, poplar, 

 hornbeam, or any other woods, either from stub or seed, are preserved till the succeeding fall, and then a due 

 succession of the oak, ash and beech seedlings are preserved ; the rest are cut down and split for sheep 

 flakes. Great part of the underwood is hazel, and a conversion of the straight hazel rods into smart hoops 

 for the West India trade would be more to the advantage of the growers than into charcoal and firewood ; but 

 this conversion is not much understood or followed in Hertfordshire. A good plant of thriving underwood 

 may be averaged at zos. per acre per annum. 



Mr. Walker also noted that the county possessed a considerable quantity of timber fit for 

 the Navy and inferior shipping, and anticipated that a large supply would be brought to London 

 by the Grand Junction Canal. He had seen naked oak timber recently sold near Berkhamp- 

 stead, and in the hne of the canal, at ^J los. per load, which would be worth at least ^5 los. 

 at any of the king's or merchants' yards. 



A more elaborate report on this county was presented to the Board in 1804 by their 

 secretary, the celebrated Arthur Young ; the tenth chapter is devoted to the consideration of 

 woods." It is therein remarked that the woods of Hertfordshire between Hockerill, Ware and 

 Buntingford were generally rented at about 12^. an acre and cut at twelve years' growth, when 

 the produce was about ^g an acre. Fifteen hundred acres of the Marquess of Salisbury, on poorer 

 soil, did not yield more than ys. an acre. There were then about 2,000 acres of woodland to 

 the south of Hertford towards London. When let to tenants they were cut at nine or ten years' 

 growth, and might be cut twice in a twenty-one years' lease ; but they were mostly in the land- 

 owners' hands, and were then generally cut every twelve years, when they produced from ^^4 to 

 ^12 an acre ; the sallow and willow were used for hurdles and the remainder for faggots. 



Any survey of forestry is necessarily concerned with parks, as they are always more or less 

 well timbered. Mr. Harting in an article of the year 1 88 1 ^^ enumerates thirty-four old parks of 

 the county that have either ceased to exist or are now no longer deer parks. They are as 

 follows : Aspenden, Bedwell, Benington, Berkhampstead, Brockett Hall, Cheshunt, Eastwick, 

 Furneux Pelham, Hadham Parva, Hamells, Hertingfordbury, Hunsdon, King's Langley, New 

 Place (Gilston), Offley Place, Panshanger, Penley Park, Pishobury, Ponsbourne, Roxford, Rye, 

 Sawbridgeworth, St. Albans, Shenley, Stagenhoe, Standon, Theobalds, Thorley, Tyttenhanger, 

 Throcking, Ware, Walkern, Widford and Wyddial. The existing deer parks of the county are 

 ten in number— namely, Ashridge, Cassiobury, Gorhambury, Grove, Hatfield, Knebworth, Moor, 

 Rickmansworth, Tring and Woodhall.^' 



Ashridge Park (Earl Brownlow), which is partly in the parish of Little Gaddesden, has an 

 area of 986 acres, and is stocked with about 100 red deer and 300 fallow deer. Within the S-mile 

 circumference is a considerable stretch of wild and forest-like ground, and there is an abundance 

 of fine timber, chiefly oak, beech and ash. The greater part of this park used to be in Bucking- 

 hamshire, but a recent readjustment of county boundaries gives it to Hertfordshire. It was 

 anciently in two divisions, one stocked with fallow and the other with red deer, the latter 

 situated north-west of the house.^" The first park^' at Ashridge dates from before the grant of 

 the manor to the college of Ashridge. Large additions were made by the Earl of Bridgewater ^^ 

 in the 17th century. 



Cassiobury Park (the Earl of Essex), in the south-west corner of the county, near Watford, 

 is of considerable size, having an area of 735 acres. The park is divided into two parts, the 

 Home Park and the Upper Park, by the placid stream of the Gade. It is stocked with a herd 

 of about 150 fallow deer. This undulating and picturesque park is splendidly timbered. There 

 are good avenues of hmes, much old oak, many well-grown cedars, and some exceptionally fine 

 firs to the north-east of the house. There does not seem to be any mention of this park extant 

 before 1632, but it was probably made by Richard Morrison in the 1 6th century.^' Arthur 

 Capell, Earl of Essex, resided there in the time of Charles II on his return from Ireland ; he 

 not only rebuilt most of the house, but laid out the gardens and grounds, after the formal style 

 of those at Versailles, and did much planting in the park. Most of the planting was done under 

 the direction of Moses Cook, whose volume on ' Forest Trees,' published in 1676, was dedicated to 



" A. Young, Gen. Vierv of Agric. of Herts. 145-8. 

 " Trans. Herts. Nat. Hist. Soc. ii, 97-1 1 1. 



" The short accounts of these parks are taken from Shirley (1867) and Whitaker (1892) Deerparh, and 

 from special information and observation. 



20 Lipscomb, Bucks, iii, 447. The county boundary used to run right through the centre of the house. 



21 Cal. Pat. 1281-92, p. 231. 



22 r.C.H. Herts, ii, 209 et seq. ^' Ibid. 454. 



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