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Cobbett 1830
Having made all preparations for a day's ride, we set off, as our first
point, for a station, in the Forest, called NEW PARK, there to see something
about plantations and other matters connected with the affairs of our prime
cocks, the Surveyors of Woods and Forests and Crown Lands and Estates.
...
... LYNDHURST, we had to go about three miles to NEW PARK, which is a farm in
the New Forest, and nearly in the centre of it. We got to this place about nine
o'clock. There is a good and large mansion-house here, in which the
'COMMISSIONERS' of Woods and Forests reside, when they come into the Forest.
There is a garden, a farm-yard, a farm, and a nursery. The place looks like a
considerable gentleman's seat; the house stands in a sort of park, and you can
see that a great deal of expense has been incurred in levelling the ground, and
making it pleasing to the eye of my lords 'the Commissioners.' My business here
was to see, whether any thing had been done towards the making of Locust
plantations. ... Having told my business to a person, who appeared to be a
foreman, or bailiff, he, with great civility, took me into a nursery, which is
at the back of the house; and, I soon drew from him the disappointing fact, that
my lords, the tree-planters, had departed the day before! I found, as to
Locusts, that a patch were sowed last spring, which I saw, which are from one
foot to four feet high, and very fine and strong, and are, in number, about
enough to plant two acres of ground, the plants at four feet apart each way. I
found, that, last fall, some few Locusts had been put out into plantations of
other trees already made; but that they had not thriven, and had been barked by
the hares! But, a little bunch of these trees (same age), which were planted in
the nursery, ought to convince my lords, the tree-planters, that, if they were
to do what they ought to do the public would very soon be owners of fine
plantations of Locusts, for the use of the navy. And what are the hares kept for
here? Who eats them?
What right have these Commissioners to keep hares here, to eat up the trees?
LORD FOLKESTONE killed his hares before he made his plantation of Locusts; and,
why not kill the hares in the people's forest; for, the people's it is, and that
these Commissioners ought always to remember. And, then, again, why this farm?
What is it for? Why, the pretence for it is this: that is necessary to give the
deer hay, in winter, because the lopping down of limbs of trees for them to
browse, (as used to be the practice) is injurious to the growth of timber. That
would be a very good reason for having a hay-farm, when my lords shall have
proved two things; first, that hay, in quantity equal to what is raised here,
could not be bought for a twentieth part of the money, that this farm and all
its trappings cost; and, second, that THERE OUGHT TO BE ANY DEER KEPT! What are
these deer for? Who are to eat them? ... And, that the game should be kept, too,
to eat up trees, to destroy plantations, to destroy what is first paid for the
planting of! And that the public should pay keepers to preserve this game! And
that the people should be transported if they go out by night to catch the game
that they pay for feeding! ... This New Forest is a piece of property, as much
belonging to the public as the Custom-House at London is. There is no man,
however poor, who has not a right in it. ...
The same person (a very civil and intelligent man) that showed me the
nursery, took me, in my way, back, through some plantations of oaks, which have
been made amongst fir-trees. it was, indeed, a plantation of Scotch firs, about
twelve years old, in rows, at six feet apart. Every third row of firs was left,
and oaks were (about six years ago) planted instead of the firs that were
grubbed up; and the winter shelter, that the oaks have received from the
remaining firs, has made them grow very finely, though the land is poor. Other
oaks planted in the open, twenty years ago, and in land deemed better, are not
nearly so good. However, these oaks, between the firs, will take fifty or sixty
good years to make them timber, and, until they be timber, they are of very
little use; whereas, the same ground, planted with Locusts (and the hares of 'my
lords' kept down), would, at this moment, have been worth fifty pounds an acre.
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