230 THE NEW FOREST. 
demolition of thirty-six churches could hardly have 
escaped the notice of the Chronicler. 
It is probable that the district in which the Forest 
was created was wild and almost wholly uncultivated, 
interspersed, perhaps, with a few hamlets in the more 
fertile valleys. There are many indications in Domes- 
day to this effect. We know, also, that many of the 
Manors, of which the Forest consisted, were in the 
hands of religious bodies before the Conquest. It 
may be surmised that William took the wastes of these 
Manors forcibly from these bodies, and converted them 
into one great Forest subject to forestal law; and that he 
may also in some cases have appropriated the land of 
private owners for the purpose. There is a passage in 
Domesday Book, quoted by Freeman, to show that the 
King did take property, from one person at least, for 
the purpose of adding it to the Forest. He may also 
have extended the limits of his Forest over contiguous 
private lands, in the sense already described in the case 
of Epping Forest—namely, that while leaving the owners 
in possession of them, he subjected them to the Forest 
laws, and forbade the erection of fences above a certain 
height, or the cutting-down of trees without his con- 
sent, or the exercising the right of sporting over such 
private domains. The extension of a Forest in a legal 
sense in this manner, and the enforcement in it of the 
cruel game laws, must necessarily have caused great 
indignation in the district, and the early detractors of 
the Conqueror may have magnified the transaction into 
the story told and repeated by others. The misfortunes 
