A HISTORY OF SURREY 



pine, beech, ash, chestnut, alder and poplar. In 1851 Richmond Park 

 was, together with Battersea Park (formed as a recreation ground under 

 the provisions of a special Act of Parliament in 1846) and various other 

 royal parks in Middlesex, Kent and elsewhere, transferred from the 

 management of the Commissioners of Woods and Forests to that of the 

 Commissioners of Works, since which time they have been maintained 

 purely as pleasure grounds and places of recreation. 



The principal woodland tract in Surrey is the Weald, extending all 

 along the southern part of the county below the central range of hills ; 

 and the stiff clays of this tract produce much oak timber of fine growth, 

 and also ash of good quality, though not in large quantity. The under- 

 wood here is generally of good quality (unless exposed to damage from 

 rabbits), and consists chiefly of hazel, ash and oak, with withy and osiers 

 in moist places, and chestnut, birch and hazel on the hilly land. 



So long as there was good demand for poles from the underwoods 

 these paid so well that landowners were not at all anxious to clear their 

 woods and transform them into tillage or pasturage. In the northern 

 part of the county there is of course not only less woodland than in the 

 south, but the crops of timber grown are also, as a rule, not so heavy, the 

 oak in particular generally showing a much less favourable development 

 and rate of growth. There is no record of the amount of timber cleared 

 from this county when oak began to have a high value for ship-building, 

 but that it must have been considerable can easily be inferred from the 

 following lament of Evelyn ' : — 



' In a word to give an instance of what store of woods, and timber of prodigious 

 size, there were growing in our little county of Surrey, (with sufficient grief and 

 reluctancy I speak it) my own grandfather had standing at Wotton, and about that 

 estate, timber that now were worth 100,000/. Since of what was left by my father, 

 (who was a great preserver of wood) there has been 30,000/. worth of timber fallen 

 by the axe, and the fury of the late hurricane and storm. Now no more Wotton, 

 stripped and naked, and ashamed almost to own its name.' 



The hurricane here referred to was a severe gale which did very 

 serious damage in the Crown forests in Hants and Gloucestershire. It 

 threw down over 2,000 of Evelyn's oaks, and he writes thus about the 

 storm " : — 



'Methinks I still hear, sure I am that I still feel, the dismal groans of our forests 

 when that late dreadful hurricane (happening on the 26th of November, 1 703) sub- 

 verted so many thousands of good oaks, prostrating the trees, laying them in ghastly 

 postures, like whole regiments fallen in battle by the sword of the Conqueror, and 

 crushing all that grew beneath them. Such was the prospect of many miles in several 

 places.' 



Of the 54,437 acres of woods and plantations in Surrey in 1895, 

 the only portions belonging to the Crown are the wooded parts of Rich- 

 mond Park and certain copses in Esher (845 acres) and Egham (area 

 unstated), which respectively yielded returns of ^1,162 and ^^297 for 



' Sjha (Hunter's edition of 1786), ii. 278. » Op. cit. p. 329. 



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