Age, Size, Roots. 



act to compel the Bishop of Winchester, for instance, 

 to plant a certain number of Oak Trees, in this manner, 

 on the spot called Waltham Chase, than to permit him and 

 his copyhold tenants to enclose this forest, to appropriate 

 the lands, and to prevent the spot from being a forest for 

 ever ? During the last session of Parliament, an Act ac- 

 tually passed the House of Commons, to warrant this latter 

 proceeding, which >vould have been one of the most odious 

 things ever done in this world. To show what land this is 

 for the growing of Oak Timber, I need only mention, that, 

 a little more than twenty years ago, the late Bishop, exer- 

 cising a right given him by a very old Act of Parliament, 

 enclosed about twenty acres of the land, for the purpose of 

 keeping out the common cattle, and thereby encouraging 

 the growth of timber. I remember when these enclosures 

 were made. The law allows them to remain enclosures 

 for only tweuty years ; and about four years ago they were 

 thrown open. I saw the enclosures made : the ground was 

 bare, except that it had, here and there, a few bushes or 

 bunches of heath upon it. I saw the spot in the fall of 

 the year 1826, and it was covered with fine young Oak 

 Trees, some of them more than twenty feet high, and many 

 of them with trunks more than two feet round at the base. 

 This spot is within about sixteen miles of the Dock- yard at 

 Portsmouth, A turnpike-road goes through the forest to 

 the edge of the harbour at Portsmouth ; and yet the House 

 of Commons actually passed a law to allow the Bishop of 

 Winchester and his copyhold tenants, totally to destroy 

 this forest. The timber of this forest is the property of the 

 See of IVinchester ; so that the Bishop (who is since dead) 

 would have stripped the See of this source of riches for 

 ever ) for he would have cut down all the timber, young 

 as well as old, now standing in the forest ; the crown would 

 have had this part of the things in its gift alienated from it 



D 



