FORESTRY 



against vert were Purpresture or trespass and enclosure, Waste or clearance 

 of cover, and Assart or digging up roots to transform woodlands into fields 

 for ploughing or pasturage. Any enclosure of land within the limits of 

 a forest, without previously obtaining permission, was an encroachment, 

 and punishable as ' purpresture.' If any freeholder, without first of all 

 obtaining the royal permission or a special licence from the justice in 

 eyre, felled timber within his own woods or ploughed one of his own 

 meadows, he was guilty of ' waste,' and the land could be seized for the 

 king's use till a fine had been paid for committing such offence. If any 

 part of a woodland or other cover were grubbed or pulled up by the 

 roots, this was an ' assart,' and it was a graver offence than either of the 

 other two, because it completely destroyed the land as cover for game. 

 Permission to assart could be obtained by royal favour.* 



' The Abbey (of Waverley, in Farnham hundred) had a license of 8 Edward II. to 

 assart and enclose forty acres of wood on this estate, which was renewed or confirmed 

 to them by another patent, in 6 Edward III. At this place, viz. Dokkenfeld, the 

 Abbot was obliged to find entertainment for the Foresters and Regarders of the king, 

 when they came to take views, for one night, and hay and oats for their horses, to the 

 value of 20y.' 



In the Third Report of the Commissioners of Woods, etc. (1788),^ the 

 only one ' of the several Woods, Forests, Parks and Chases ' mentioned 

 as then belonging to the Crown in Surrey is Richmond Park. This is 

 known to have been a park as early as 1292, when it formed part of the 

 manor of Sheen ; but in 1485 Henry VII. altered its name to Richmond, 

 after his earldom in Yorkshire. 



The palace built here was a favourite residence with the three 

 chief sovereigns of the House of Tudor, and both Henry VII. and 

 Queen Elizabeth died there. In Henry VIII. 's time there were two 

 parks, called the Great and the Little Park, the former being more 

 generally known as the New Park, under which name it is still marked 

 on the map of Surrey given in Camden's Britannia (ed. 2, 1722), while 

 the latter formed the Old Park. 



In connection with this New or Great Park Charles I. resolved to 

 include and impark for himself private estates and common lands along 

 with the woods and wastes owned by the Crown. A Commission was 

 appointed in 1634 to compel owners to dispose of their land, and in 1637 

 the enclosure was completed, despite strong feeling against and opposition 

 to this high-handed procedure. On 30 June, 1649, ^^ House of Com- 

 mons granted the New Park to the citizens of London, and only the old 

 deer park (of 349 acres in extent) was mentioned in the survey of that 

 year ; but on the Restoration the Corporation ir London made a gift of 

 the New Park to Charles II. During the time of George III. a good 

 deal of planting was done in Richmond Great Park, which then had an 

 area of about 2,253 ^cres, the chief trees planted being oak, elm, Scots 



1 Manning and Bray, op. cit. (1814), iii. 146. ' Appendix No. I, p. 55. 



II 569 72 



