16 OUR FORESTS AND WOODLANDS 
with the houses and possessions of so many 
townships, to make them habitations for wild 
beasts, seems a gross exaggeration, although the 
afforestation was assuredly carried out without 
any particular regard to the feelings of the 
local population. The almost barren condition 
of many portions of the poor, sandy soil make 
it extremely improbable that this part of Hamp- 
shire could ever have been a thickly-populated 
and richly-cultivated tract; and this actual physi- 
cal evidence must be weighed against the accusa- 
tions of the monkish records. Naturally, the 
abbots and monks were not favourably inclined 
to the Norman conquerors, who drove them forth 
from their churches and monasteries. Hence a 
true, dispassionate, unprejudiced account of the 
royal proceedings could not be expected from 
them; for they were men at heart, though 
monks in habit. 
Many of the wooded tracts in that part of 
Hampshire had previously been appropriated by 
the Crown in the earlier feudal times, and were 
still in its possession; and when the reserved 
area was enlarged and formed into one great 
compact block, it was given the name of the 
