New Forest
New Forest (19th century)The place is described in text Cobbett 1830
... 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. ...
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... I wished, besides, to see a good deal of this New Forest. I had been, before, from Southampton to Lyndhurst, from Lyndhurst to Lymington, from Lymington, to Sway. I had now come in on the north of Minstead from Romsey, so that I had seen the north of the Forest and all down the west side of it, down to the sea. I had now been to New Park and had got back to Lyndhurst; so that, if I rode across the Forest down to Beaulieu, I went right across the middle of it, from north-west to south-east. Then if I turned towards Southampton, and went to Dipten and on to Ealing, I should see, in fact, the whole of this Forest, or nearly the whole of it.
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... we went through a wood [near Beaulieu], chiefly of beech, and that beech seemingly destined to grow food for pigs, of which we saw, during this day, many, many thousand. I should think that we saw at least a hundred hogs to one deer. I stopped, at one time, and counted the hogs and pigs just round about me and they amounted to 140, all within 50 or 60 yards of my horse.
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... Just about the banks of this little river [Beaulieu River], there are some woods and coppices, and some corn-land; but, at the distance of half a mile from the water-side, we came out again upon the intolerable heath, and went on for seven or eight miles over that heath, from the village of Beaulieu to that of Marchwood. Having a list of trees and inclosed lands away to our right all the way along, which list of trees from the south-west side of that arm of the sea which goes from Calshot castle to Redbridge, passing by Southampton, which lies on the north-east side. Never was a more barren tract of land than these seven or eight miles. We had come seven miles across the forest in another direction in the morning; so that a poorer spot than this New Forest, there is not in all England; nor, I believe, in the whole world. It is more barren and miserable than Bagshot heath.
There are less fertile spots in it, in proportion to the extent of each. Still, it is so large, it is of such great extent, being, if moulded into a circle, not so little, I believe, as 60 or 70 miles in circumference, that it must contain some good spots of land, and, if properly and honestly managed, those spots must produce a prodigious quantity of timber. ... In the year 1608, a survey of the timber, in the New Forest, was made, when there were loads of oak timber fit for the navy, three hundred and fifteen thousand four hundred and seventy-seven. Mark that, reader. Another survey was taken in the year 1783; that is to say, in the glorious Jubilee reign. And, when there were, in the same New Forest, loads of oak timber fit for the navy, twenty thousand eight hundred and thirty ...
This Forest [New Forest] has been crawled upon by favourites, and is now much smaller than it used to be. A time may, and WILL come, for inquiring HOW George Rose, and others, became owners of some of the very best parts of this once-public property; a time for such inquiry MUST come, before the people of England will ever give their consent to a reduction of the interest of the debt! But, this we know, that the New Forest formerly extended, westward, from the SOUTHAMPTON WATER and the River OUX, to the River AVON and northward, from LYMINGTON HAVEN to the borders of WILTSHIRE. We know, that this was its utmost extent; and we know also, that the towns of CHRISTCHURCH, LYMINGTON, RINGWOOD, and FORDINGBRIDGE, and the villages of BOLDER, FAWLEY, LYNDHURST, DIPDEN, ELING, MINSTED, and all the other villages that now have churches; we know, I say (and, pray mark it), that all these towns and villages EXISTED BEFORE THE NORMAN CONQUEST; because the Roman names of several of them (all the towns) are in print, and because an account of them all is to be found in DOMESDAY BOOK, which was made by this very WILLIAM the CONQUEROR. ...
... 'Historians' should be careful how they make statements relative to places which are within the scope of the reader's inspection. ...
The true statement is this: the New Forest, according to its ancient state, was bounded thus: by the line, going from the river OUX, to the river AVON, and which line there separates Wiltshire from Hampshire; by the river AVON; by the sea from Christchurch to Calshot Castle; by the Southampton Water; and by the river OUX. These are the boundaries; and (as any one may, by scale and compass, ascertain), there are, within these boundaries, about 224 square miles, containing 143,360 acres of land. Within these limits there are now remaining eleven parish churches, all of which were in existence before the time of William the Conqueror; so that, if he destroyed thirty-six parish churches, what a populous country this must have been! There must have been forty-seven parish churches; so that there was, over this whole district, one parish church to every four and three quarters square miles! Thus, then, the churches must have stood, on an average, at within one mile and about two hundred yards of each other! And, observe, the parishes could, on an average, contain no more, each, than 2,966 acres of land! Not a very large farm; so that here was a parish church to every large farm, unless these historians are all fools and liars. I defy any one to say that I make hazardous assertions: I have plainly described the ancient boundaries: there are the maps: any one can, with scale and compass, measure the area as well as I can. ...
Period - 19th century, early
a forest in Hampshire, lying between Southampton water and the river Avon. It is 20m long and 15 broad; and has advanytages of situation, with respect to conveyance by water carriage, and vicinity to the dockyards, superior to every other forest; having in its neighbourhood several places for shipping timber. It was afforested by William I, and was then 10m longer. His son William Rufus was killed in this forest by an arrow, shot by Walter Tyrrel, which accidentally glanced against a tree and the site is now pointed out by a triangular stone. The lord warden of this forest is appointed by letters patent, during the king's pleasure, and all the courts of jurisdiction are held at Lyndhurst.
Lyndhurst, a village in Hampshire, on the N side of the New Forest, ... all the forest courts are held here.
Hampshire ... its great woods, of which the principal are ... the New Forest ...
