234 THE NEW FOREST. 
Mark Ash especially an adequate idea can be formed 
of a real Forest unspoilt by man. The trees stand 
wide apart, and are all of great size; at the edge of the 
wood they are fully developed, and the boughs feather 
to the ground, but within it the growth tends upwards. 
Mixed with them are thickets of hollies and hawthorns 
with a setting of fern, forming a syivan scene of 
unique beauty. Other portions of the Forest, in the 
true sense of the term, consist of woods planted by the 
Crown under legislative powers, which gave the right 
to inclose land for the purpose, and to shut out the 
Commoners until the trees should be grown to a size at 
which the cattle could do no harm to them. 
During the Civil Wars of Charles I. and the 
Commonwealth the Forest was much wasted of its 
timber. Later, the fear arose that there would not be a 
continuous supply of timber for the Navy. Power was, 
therefore, given by Parliament in 1698 to inclose 6,000 
acres for planting. This was strictly limited to the 
growth of timber for national purposes. The planta- 
tions were to be made gradually—2,000 acres were to 
be inclosed at once, but the remainder at a rate not 
exceeding 200 acres in any one year; and the. planta- 
tions were again to be thrown open to the Commoners 
so soon as the trees were past damage by the cattle and 
deer. When any part of the 6,000 acres had been thrown 
open, a similar quantity might again be planted on the 
same terms. Under these provisions about 10,000 acres 
were inclosed and planted prior to 1851, but the whole 
extent had been thrown open again, with the exception of 
