New Park
New Park, Brockenhurstcounty:
Hampshire
The place is described in text 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. ...
Shown on an old map by Harrison 1788 (perhaps)
- park - New Forest Hundred - Hampshire
Period - 1780s
Shown on an old map by Morden 1695
- park - New Forrest Hundred - Hampshire
Period - 1690s-1720s
Shown on an old map by Blaeu 1645
- park, settlement, village - Newforrest Hundred - Hantshire
Shown on an old map by Speed 1611
- park - Newforrest Hundred - Hantshire
Shown on an old map by Norden 1607
- park - Newforrest Hundred - Hamshire
Period - 1590s-1600s
- park - Southamtoniae
- park, royal park - Brockenhurst parish: - Hampshire
