282 



Selwood Forest. 



Beverill to build another house. There are some old gnarled oaks 

 scattered about near a brook which were part of the original park. 

 The old road from Longleat to Warminster lay along- there, as may- 

 still be seen. The hills round the present park did not at that time 

 belong to the estate. The present beautiful entrance and the road 

 down the steep hill are of comparatively modern date. 



As to- the full size and extent of Selwood Forest, when at its 

 largest, I do not pretend to be able to follow the outside boundary 

 with precision. Having never met with any old map of it at any 

 period my only authorities are Perambulation deeds, or other docu- 

 ments that happen to allude to it : and in these so many of the 

 old names that occur are now lost that one must be content with 

 as near an approach to the real state of the case as the circum- 

 ances will permit. This has been attempted in the small map that 

 accompanies this paper : and in the appendix to it are given the 

 principal documents that have supplied the names of the places that 

 were once within the limits of the forest. 



The forest lay in two counties, and having been at first of 

 moderate size in each county, was enlarged from time to time by 

 royal encroachments, chiefly between the reigns of Henry II. and 

 Edward III. Owing to these encroachments, the Wiltshire 

 part— at first much smaller than that in Somersetshire— became 

 at length much the largest. Speaking briefly, the old Somerset 

 forest began near Bruton and ran up to Frome and Roddenbury 

 Hill. The old Wiltshire began at Roddenbury and went up 

 only as far as Penleigh and Brook House, near Westbury. 

 But in course of time the Wiltshire part had been actually 

 carried up as far as Whaddon, where it joined Melksham Forest, 

 and then back, along the line of the downs, to near Shaftesbury, 

 where it would touch Cranbourne Chase. The tyrannical forest 

 law and the great annoyance to private property — such as not being 

 able to cut your own trees without leave — and the damage and in- 

 convenience of having hundreds of deer ranging at will over your 

 farm, destroying the corn and the turnips, created at last such a bad 

 feeling, perhaps a rebellious one, that the kings were obliged to 

 reduce them, and let them be limited to the original known size. 



