acres; about six hundred and twenty-five acres are copyhold or customary lands, belonging to His Majesty's manor of Lyndhurst; about one thousand and four acres are leasehold under the crown; about nine hundred and one acres are purprestures or encroachments on the foest;* about eleven hundred and ninety-three acres are enclosed lands, held by the master-keepers and groomkeepers, with their respective lodges; and the remainder, being about sixty-three thousand, eight hundred and forty-five acres, are the woods and waste lands of the forest.

New Forest is divided into nine bailiwicks,† which comprise fifteen walks. Each of these bailiwicks is un

*These are made in general by poor people; who build their little huts, and enclose their gardens and patches of ground, without leave, or ceremony, of any kind. The under-keepers, who have constant orders to destroy all these enclosures, now and then assert the rights of the forest, by throwing down a fence; but it requires a legal process to throw down a house, of which possession has been taken. The trespasser therefore, here, as in other wastes, is careful to rear his cottage, and get into it, as quickly as possible. All the materials of one of these habitations have frequently been brought together, the house built, covered in, a fire kindled, and the family in possession, during the course of a moon-light night. Sometimes indeed, where the trespass is inconsiderable, the possessor pays his fine in the court of Lyndhurst, and the offence is often winked at. But these trespasses are generally in the outskirts of the forest, or in the neighbourhood of some little hamlet. They are never suffered in the interior parts; where no lands are alienated from the crown, except in regular grants. Gilpin's Forest Scenery, vol. ii. p. 40.

+ The nine bailiwicks are, Burley, Fritham, Godshill, Lynwood, Batramsley, South East, the Nodes, Inn, and North. These are subdivided into fifteen walks; Burley, Holmsley, Boldrewood, Eyeworth, Ashley, Broomy, Rhinefield, Wilverley, Whitley Ridge, Ladycross, Denny and the Nodes, Ashurst, Ironshill, Castle Malwood, and Bramble hill.

der the care of a master-keeper, appointed by the lord warden of the forest. They have deputies under them, styled groom-keepers; whose duty it is to preserve the vert‡ and venison within their respective walks. Besides these, the concerns of New Forest are regulated by the following officers :--

The lord warden; appointed by letters patent under the great seal, during the king's pleasure. The present lord warden is the duke of Gloucester.

The lieutenant of the forest; an office which has been for some time vacant.

The riding officer; who, in case of His Majesty's visiting the forest, is to ride before him.

The bow-bearer is, by the custom of New Forest, to be provided with a brace of milk-white greyhounds. He is obliged to present the king with these, on his first entrance within the boundaries; at which time, he is to of fer him his bow, with an arrow: the king is expected to shoot the arrow, and return the bow with his purse. This custom was not observed when His present ajesty entered the forest. It is the duty of the bow-bearer to attach any one for trespasses committed on the 66 vert and venison", or green hue and hunting", as they are, in the same love of alliteration, occasionally styled. This, in his oath of office, he swears to perform, as well as to be of good behaviour towards His Majesty's wild beasts." He ranks next to the lord war

66

Vert, in the laws of the forest, signifies every thing that grows, and bears a green leaf, within the forest, that may cover and hide a deer.-Cowell's Law Dictionary.

den. His salary is forty shillings a year, and he is entitled to one buck in the season.*

The rangers are appointed by the lord warden, to keep the deer within the bounds of the forest.

The woodward's duty (now performed by deputy) is to attend on the assigning of wood for fuel, to take charge of windfall trees, &c. He is appointed by letters patent, during His Majesty's pleasure.

The verderers' office is a very ancient one. They are judges of the sweinmote and attachment courts, and are chosen by the freeholders of the county. They receive no recompense for their trouble, but a fee buck and doe, yearly.

The high steward has a deputy, called the under-steward, who transacts the business of the courts.

The regarders, of whom there are twelve, are chosen by the freeholders of the county. They are to attend the marking of all timber to be felled in the forest.

Besides these ancient officers of the forest, there is one of later institution, since timber became valuable as a material. He is called the purveyor, and is appointed by the commissioner of the dock at Portsmouth.†

His

*This office is at present held by William Stewart Rose, esq. from whose notes on a little local poem entitled the Red King, printed at the end of his late translation of the French romance of Partenopex de Blois, the above passage is extracted.

This office was held by the late Mr. Thomas Nichols, of Redbridge, till his death; when government lost a most able and judicious adviser on the subjects of naval timber and of the management of the forest. He communicated to the public the result of his professional knowledge, in two sensible pamphlets. The first of these, printed in 1791, was entitled "Observations on the Propagation and Management of Oak Trees in general; but more imme

business is to assign timber for the use of the navy. The origin of purveyor is not earlier than the reign of Charles II.; in whose time five hundred oaks, and fifty beeches, were annually cut for the king's yards; and this officer was appointed to assign them. But it being found, that the forest could ill supply so large a quantity of oak, instead of five hundred, the number was afterwards reduced. There is also a deputy-surveyor, appointed by the surveyor-general of woods.

The forest courts are of very high antiquity, originating in the Anglo-Saxon times. There were formerly four of them: the court of attachment, woodmote, or forty-days' court; the court of regard; the court of sweinmote; and the court of justice seat. The disuse, however, of forest laws, and our gradual improvement in judicial processes, have occasioned these courts to be neglected; so that the only one now holden is the sweinmote, which sits twice or thrice in every year.*

The forest laws, in ancient times, may be said, like those of Draco, to have been “written in blood." So tenacious were our royal Nimrods of the exclusive privi

diately applying to New Forest, with a view of making that extensive tract of land more productive of timber for the use of the navy, in a letter to Lord Chatham," then at the head of the admiralty. The second pamphlet, published in 1795, was entitled "Methods proposed for decreasing the Consumption of Timber in the Navy, by prolonging the duration of our ships of war; with observations on iron knees, on the timbered state of the kingdom, on the sap of oak trees, and on keeping, seasoning, and converting timber." The bare enumeration of their titles will show the importance of the subjects discussed in these very useful publications.

Southampton Guide; Warner's Topographical Remarks; Gilpin's Forest Scenery.

lege of worrying to death the devoted objects of their pastime, that, by the laws of Canute, it was ordained, that, if any freeman should "course or hunt a beast of the forest, either casually or wilfully, so that, by the swiftness of the course, the beast should pant, and be put out of breath, he should forfeit ten shillings to the king; but if any bondman should be guilty of the same offence, he should lose his skin." Again, if the same liberty should be taken with "a royal beast, or stag," the freeman was to be imprisoned for a year, and the bondman reckoned as an outlaw. The penalty for actually killing an animal of the latter description, was, to a freeman, the loss of his freedom; and to a bondman, or slave, the loss of his life.*

These rigid and tyrannical laws continued in full force during many reigns. Nor were the usurpations of our

* Forest Laws of Canute, granted at Winchester, in a parliament holden there in 1062, printed in an abridgment of Manwood's Foest Laws, p. 5, 6.- While the forest laws prevailed, the following singular modes of conviction were in use." "If a keeper shall find any person within the forest, either with bows and arrows, or with greyhounds, intending to offend there, he shall arrest and imprison him, as if he had committed the fact he intended; but not unless he shall be taken in one of these four ways, viz, Stablestand, Dogdraw, Backbear, or Bloodyhand. Stablestand is, when any person is found standing in the forest, with a bow ready bent to shoot at any deer, or with his greyhound in a leash ready to slip. Dogdraw is, when any one hath hurt or wounded a deer, or other beast of the forest, and the forester finds such offender drawing after the beast with a hound to recover it. Backbear is, where one hath slain a beast of the forest, and the foresters discover him as he is carrying away the same. Bloodyhand is, where one is found coursing in the forest, with the blood of any deer upon him, or is any way besmeared with such blood, after coursing, albeit he be not seen to hunt or course there." Manwood, p. 47.