280 
Reclaiming of Waste Lands. 
£. s. d. 
Present annual return 5104 7 G 
Former aumuil return 1S13 7 1 
Xet annual improved income .. 3291 0 5 
The above account of the improved income from Wichwood, 
as now under cultivation, must be highly .satisfactory to us all 
as patriotic Englishmen and loyal subjects; and prove en- 
couraging to enterprising agriculturists, and all owners of " Waste 
Land." 
Effects of the Disafforestment of Wicliicoocl. — Let us pause here 
awhile and consider what effects have sprung, and are likely to 
be produced, from tlie disafforestment of Wichwood. W e have 
seen that the annual cash return from this property has been 
greatly increased ; but however great may be the ■pecuniary 
benefit to the Crown, the effect on the people of the neighhourltood 
and the community generally, is of more consequence. Formerly, 
when deer and game abounded in the coverts, deer-stealers and 
poachers, idlers and thieves, were numerous around ; conflic ts 
between them and the keepers were frequent ; imprisonment and 
transportation caused many families to lose their paternal head, 
and where matters did not reach this point, perhaps the abiding 
influences were still worse ; a stolen buck could readily be dis- 
posed of; the amount paid for such plunder frequently amounted 
to 21. or 3/. ; but as ill-gotten booty is seldom well spent, the 
beer-shops too often absorbed the greater part of the proceeds ; 
there was squandered in dissipation, what had been dishonestly 
obtained ; a deserted home, a neglected wife, and children left 
to their own devices, filled up the background of this sad picture.* 
Fortunately the chief incentive to such vicious courses died out 
with the death of the last deer ; honest employment can now l)e 
obtained on the new farms ; each season brings its appointed work, 
and none need be idle who wish to be busy. Poets and painters 
may sigh because some fine woodland scenery has been swept 
away ; but, of what consequence is a magnificent view, when 
compared with that plenty which has taken the place of j)overty, 
or those habits of industiy now firmly established, where dissi- 
pation and crime once abounded ? 
* The fnllowing is an extract from a small topographical description of the 
county of Oxford, published mou// ycurs ifju: — " An euclosuiv of Wichwood Forest 
would make a hirge tract of land productive to the public; the morals of the 
county demand it: this vicinity being filkfl with poacliers, deer-stealers, thieves, 
and i)ilferers of every kind ; the poor-rates too are higher in the parishes that sur- 
roiiiid the Forest tlian in others uuder similar circumstauces, except that of being 
cut off from the Forest." 
