Page:The New Forest - its history and its scenery.djvu/63

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The Commission of 1789.

Nothing was done towards planting during the reigns of Anne and George I.;^[1] and Phillipson's and Pitt's plantations in 1755 and 1756 are the next, but they have never thrived, owing to the land not having been drained, and the trees not having been thinned out at the proper time.

In 1789 a Commission was appointed, and revealed a terrible state of things. William's provisions had not only been set aside, but defied. Cattle were turned out, the furze and heath cut, and the marl dug by those who had no privileges. The Forest was, in fact, robbed under every pretext. The deer, from being overstocked, died in the winter by hundreds from starvation. On every side, too, encroachments were made by those whose business it was to prevent them. The rabbits destroyed the young timber, whilst the old was stolen.^[2]

In 1800 there was fresh legislation,^[3] but it does not seem to

↑ To show how for years the Forest was neglected and robbed, we find, from a survey made in James I.'s reign, 1608, that there were no less than 123,927 growing trees fit for felling, and decaying trees which would yield 118,000 loads of timber; whilst in Queen Anne's reign, in 1707, only 12,476 are reported as serviceable. See Fifth Report of the Land Revenue Commissioners, Journals of the House of Commons, vol. xliv. p. 563. The waste in James I. and Charles I.'s time must have been enormous, for from the "Necessarie Remembrances" before quoted we find that there were not in 1632 much above 2,000 serviceable trees in the whole Forest.
↑ See, as before, Fifth Report of the Land Revenue Commissioners, pp. 561, 562, and especially the evidence of the under-steward, Appendix, 583. As far back as February 20th, 1619, we find that James I. gave the Earl of Southampton 1,200l. a year as compensation for the damage which the enormous quantity of deer in the Forest caused to his land. Letter from Gerrard to Carleton, Feb. 20, 1618/1619, Record Office. Domestic Series, No. 105, f. 120. Gilpin (vol. ii. pp. 32, 33, third edition) states that in his day two keepers alone robbed the Forest to the value of 50,000l.
↑ Journals of the House of Commons, vol. xlvii. pp. 611-792; vol. lv. pp. 600-784.

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[1] To show how for years the Forest was neglected and robbed, we find, from a survey made in James I.'s reign, 1608, that there were no less than 123,927 growing trees fit for felling, and decaying trees which would yield 118,000 loads of timber; whilst in Queen Anne's reign, in 1707, only 12,476 are reported as serviceable. See Fifth Report of the Land Revenue Commissioners, Journals of the House of Commons, vol. xliv. p. 563. The waste in James I. and Charles I.'s time must have been enormous, for from the "Necessarie Remembrances" before quoted we find that there were not in 1632 much above 2,000 serviceable trees in the whole Forest.

[2] See, as before, Fifth Report of the Land Revenue Commissioners, pp. 561, 562, and especially the evidence of the under-steward, Appendix, 583. As far back as February 20th, 1619, we find that James I. gave the Earl of Southampton 1,200l. a year as compensation for the damage which the enormous quantity of deer in the Forest caused to his land. Letter from Gerrard to Carleton, Feb. 20, 1618/1619, Record Office. Domestic Series, No. 105, f. 120. Gilpin (vol. ii. pp. 32, 33, third edition) states that in his day two keepers alone robbed the Forest to the value of 50,000l.

[3] Journals of the House of Commons, vol. xlvii. pp. 611-792; vol. lv. pp. 600-784.

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