Part 16

In this country, even in the time of the Saxons, the forests or tracts, more or less covered with wood, were generally public or crown lands, in which the king was accustomed to take the diversion of hunting, and that hunting from which all other persons were prohibited. This distinctly appears from the laws of king Canute, enacted in 1016. But the prohibition against hunting in these, was merely a protection thrown around the property of the crown of the same kind with that afforded to all other lauded estates, in regard to which, universally, the law was, that every proprietor might hunt in his own woods or fields, but that no other person might do so without his leave. On the establishment, however, of the Norman government, it has generally been supposed that the property of all the animals of chase throughout the kingdom was held to be vested in the crown, and no person, without the express licence of the crown, was allowed to hunt even upon his own estate. But this, after all, is rather a conjecture; and, perhaps, all that we are absolutely entitled to affirm, from the evidence we possess on the subject, is, that after the Norman conquest the royal forests were guarded with much greater strictness than before; that possibly in some cases their bounds were enlarged; that trespasses upon them were punished with much greater severity; and, finally, that there was established a new system of laws and of courts for their administration.

In the language of the law, forests and chases differ from parks in not being enclosed by walls or palings, but only encompassed by metes and bounds; and a chase differs from a forest, both in being of much smaller extent (so that there are some chases within forests) and in its capability of being held by a subject, whereas a forest can only be in the hands of the Crown. But the material distinction is, or rather was, that forests alone were subject to the forest laws so long as they subsisted. Every forest, however, was also a chase. A forest is defined by Manwood, the great authority on the forest laws, as being "a certain territory or circuit of woody grounds and pastures, known in its bounds, and privileged, for the peaceable being and abiding of wild beasts, and fowls of forest, chase, and warren, to be under the king's protection for his princely delight; replenished with beasts of venery or chase, and great coverts of vert for succour of the said beasts; for preservation whereof there are particular laws, privileges, and officers belonging thereunto." The beasts of park or chase, according to Coke, are properly the buck, the doe, the fox, the marten, and the roe; but the term, in a wider sense, comprehends all the beasts of the forest. Beasts of warren are such as hares, conies, and roes; fowls of warren, such as the partridge, quail, rail, pheasant, woodcock, mallard, heron, &c.

The national woodlands of England, for many centuries, consisted of 49 forests, 13 chases, and 781 parks; some of them being of great extent, as the New Forest in Hampshire, which still contains about 66,291 acres, and extends over a district of 20 miles from north-east to south-west, and about 15 miles from east to west. Recent parliamentary inquiry has so fully established long-continued mismanagement, embezzlement of timber, and encroachments upon the national forests and parks, that a considerable portion of what remains will probably be shortly sold or leased for general cultivation. The principal remaining national forests and parks are:--

1. New Forest, Hampshire. 2. Dean Forest, Gloucestershire. 3. High Meadow Woods, do. 4. Alice Holt, Hampshire. 5. Woolmer Forest, do. 6. Parkhurst Forest, do. 7. Bere Forest, do. 8. Whittlebury Forest, Notts. 9. Salcey Forest, do. 10. Delamere Forest, Cheshire. 11. Wychwood Forest, Oxfordshire. 12. Waltham Forest, Essex. 13. Chopwell Woods, Durham. 14. The London Parks. 15. Greenwich Park. 16. Richmond Park. 17. Hampton and Bushy Parks. 18. Windsor Forest and Parks.

MISCELLANEOUS INDEX.

*_* The Names of the Trees described are given at page vii and viii.

PAGE

Alder timber valuable for piles; 45

Amazons, spears of the; 49

Aspen described; 204

Autumn, the Season of Landscape; 16

Bees, their fondness for the Linden flower; 136

Birch wine; 66

Blasted tree, its effect; 22

Bryony berries, ornamental, in their various stages; 23

Cadenham Oak; 172

Clump of trees; 25

Consecrated Yew-trees, ancient value of; 280

Copse, its use; 29

Cowper's Address to the Yardley Oak; 181

Cowthorpe Oak, near Wetherby; 180

Edlington; 9

Elm-tree, anciently considered as a funeral tree; 86

Ezekiel's (the Prophet) description of the Cedar-tree; 71

Forests and woodlands in the United Kingdom; 281

Gilpin, grave of the Rev. W. ----; 140

Glen, its character; 32

God's First Temples, Bryant's; 36

Gog and Magog; 181

Grove, its character; 33

Harefield Park in 1663, Silver Firs at; 218

Hawthorn, Queen Mary's; 94

Hern's Oak, Windsor Forest; 177

Holly-tree, supposed origin of the name; 107

---- Persian tradition and custom connected with the; 108

Honeysuckle, wild, its ornamental effect; 23

Hop, its effect when supported by a tree; 24

Hornbeam Maze, at Hampton Court; 110

Horse-chestnuts, finest at Bushy Park; 119

Inscription for the entrance into a wood, Bryant's; 40

Ivy on Trees; 22

Larch-tree, durability of its timber; 130

Leafing of Trees; 13

Leonard, Legend of St.; 60

Lightness a characteristic of beauty in Trees; 19

Lime-tree avenues; 133

Lover's Tablet, the; 56

Magdalen College, Oxford, founded near "the great Oak"; 168

Maple-tree crusca and mollusca; 142

---- the Sugar; 143

Mole, the; 42

Moss, its picturesque effect on the trunk of an aged Oak; 21

Motion, a source of picturesque beauty; 24

Mountain-Ash, Supersititions connected with the; 149

Mulberry-tree, Shakspeare's; 153

Norway Spruce Fir, the loftiest of European trees; 223

Nutting, pleasures of; 99

Oak-tree, the emblem of grandeur, strength, and duration; 158

Ornamental appendages to Trees; 22

Pine timber, character and value of; 215

Poplar dedicated to Hercules; 206

Pyramus and Thisbe, Fable of; 155

Queen Mary's Thorn; 94

Ravenna Pines at Hampstead, near London; 216

Reynolds, Tribute to Sir J; 133

Rufus, tradition respecting the place of his death; 170

Scotch Fir or Pine, durability of its timber; 215

Shire-Oak, near Worksop; 170

Swilcar Oak, in Needwood Forest; 179

Sycamore, Wordsworth's allusion to the; 229

Tamer, the finest Chestnut trees on the; 80

Traveller's joy ornamental; 23

Tree as a single object; 18

Venice Turpentine, how obtained; 127

Vernal Melody in the Forest; 15

Vine-clad branches of Trees; 23

Wallace's Oak; 176

Walnut tree, a miraculous; 238

Water-pipes, Elm; 89

Willow bark, a substitute for Jesuit's bark; 267

Woodlands and forests in the United Kingdom; 281

Yardley Oak; 180

Yew-tree, Wordsworth's description of a noted; 278

Zoroaster, the Holly and the disciples of; 108

GLASGOW:

W. G. BLACKIE AND CO., PRINTERS,

VILLAFIELD.

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Transcriber's Note

Although hyphenation was standardized, some words have both hyphaned and seperate words (for example, "light-green" and "light green") which were retained due to usage or being in qouatations. Non-standard formatting of scientific names was not changed (example, both _Abies Larix_ and Abies Larix appear). The Linnean system terminology was NOT standardized with the exception of Monoec. as an abbreviation for the term monoecious.