THE NEW FOREST IN DANGER. 63 
the War Office and the Woods and Forests Commissioners, 
first the immediate, and then the more remote. 
(1) First and foremost, it is our dutj’- as Selbornians to 
protest against the destruction of natural scenery that will most 
certainly ensue. Can any one pretend to assume that Wimble- 
don Common looks the better for the ugly mounds and deep 
trenches that cross it in various directions ? Precisel)' the 
same will take place in the New' Forest. Is it not the lament 
of the botanist that the localities for plants, some rare, are 
yearly becoming lessened, from the ravages of the builder near 
town and indiscriminate trench-digging and draining in the 
country ? Yet if it were necessary to throw up a mound or dig 
a trench at a certain spot in the New Forest, and that spot 
happened to be one of the haunts of the beautiful Gladiolus 
illyricus, whose only English home is there, wffiat amount of 
consideration would the War Office be likely to show ? The 
New' Forest has long been one of the most celebrated haunts 
for our English Lepidoptera, yet it is w'ell known that butterflies 
and moths fight shy of dust, smoke and noise. So much for 
the powers of the War Office to drive away those loved 
remnants of wild nature that delight our eyes wherever we see 
them. 
(2) Those of us who are acquainted with Wimbledon 
Common well know what it is on practising days to have to 
keep clear of the range of half-spent bullets. There the range 
lies chiefly over a hollow between two eminences, so that the 
shot passes overhead, and continues to do so even if it misses 
and passes the butts. In the New Forest the line of fire will 
be mainl}' over level ground, and, do what the authorities will, 
to prevent accidents outside the reserved range either to man or 
beast will be w'ell-nigh impossible. 
Now to turn to results more remote, but no less certain. 
It has been stated on good authority that the War Office 
has a lease of the ground for tw'enty-one years. The follow- 
ing quotation show's the nature of the dilemma into which 
those w'ho possess rights in the common land to be appropriated 
have been thrust : — “ If the commoners complain of the injury 
they are sustaining, their rights w'ill be acquired and ex- 
tinguished, and the Crow'n authorities will possess the large 
area in question freed from all common rights and may enclose 
and plant or till it. If they do not complain, their abstention 
W'ill be used as argument that the Forest is not full}' stocked 
and that other inclosures may be made by the Crow'n on the 
principle of the Statute of Merton— that is, leaving sufficient 
food for the commoners.”''' Quite lately, Mr. G. E. Eyre, an 
extensive landow'ner in the New Forest district, and a staunch 
* From leading article in Times, Saturday, December 26th, 1891, quoted in 
“ Public Opinion on the Intended Interference with the New Forest" (p. 4), a 
pamphlet issued by the New Forest .Association. 
