30 
NATURE NOTES 
of Henry VIII. for the preservation of a certain number of 
standard trees (oak, ash, beech, and others) after the copse was 
cut. In the seventh year of Queen Elizabeth a survey was 
made of all Crown woods south of the Trent, and a long list 
prepared giving the names, acreage, and condition of woods in 
the New Forest. This list includes many of the present ‘Old 
Woods.’ It is therefore evident from these and other facts 
quoted by Mr. Stafford Howard that the ‘ Old Woods ’ have 
from early times been protected, and are not in any way 
‘ natural woods.’ Secondly, that they cannot possibly regen- 
erate themselves is clear from a careful inspection, for nearly 
every young plant is devoured by the grazing animals as soon as 
it appears. Mr. Lascelles, the deputy surveyor, is thoroughly 
convinced of the decaying state of these ‘ Old Woods,’ and of 
the greatly increased rate at which they are now dying and 
falling yearly, and of the total insufficiency of the young growth. 
To quote Mr. Stafford Howard : — 
“ ‘ There are many groups of naturally-grown trees in the open 
forest where young seedlings have had the protection of thorns 
and brambles long enough from the bite of cattle and ponies 
to grow into trees, but the difference in their appearance and 
growth from those which constitute the glory of the old woods 
is that between trees which have come up here and there singly 
or in small clumps by chance in the open forest and those which 
have originally been grown in an enclosure in close ranks at first 
and under good conditions of soil and mutual shelter ; the former 
are stunted and twisted, picturesque enough in their way, but 
can never make up for the loss of the latter with their great tall 
stems and massive branches. Such magnificent woods as these 
can only be perpetuated by following on the same lines that 
were adopted when they were first formed.’ 
“ Each Commissioner writes a short report on the estates 
which are under his special charge, but Mr. Horner makes no 
remarks about his own woodlands, though the state of Windsor 
Forest clearly calls for notice, owing to the difficulties caused by 
the excessive stock of rabbits in keeping up a proper crop of 
trees, and the over-thinned condition of many of the woods. 
The restoration of Delamere Forest is also a task requiring all 
the skill of a good forester, and some remarks on what is being 
done there would be of public interest.” 
While on the subject of woodlands it may be well to call the 
attention of our readers to the recent issue by the Surveyors’ 
Institution of a paper on Forest Management, by Dr. John 
Nisbet, read on January 15th (Transactions, vol. xxxii., part iv.), 
in which the author describes, with two large plans on the 
scale of ten chains to the inch, a working plan drawn up by him 
for Lord Selborne of his lordship’s woods round Temple and 
Blackmoor, just east of Selborne. 
