The Forest of Dean Part 5

Pitt presented a second memorial to the Government, proposing that 2,000 acres more should be taken in, at an estimated cost of 2,077 pounds. The usual warrant was issued for the purpose, authorizing wood-sales to that amount, although the expense ultimately came to 3,676 pounds 5s. 6.5d.

The attention of Parliament was directed at this time to the best means of increasing the supply of timber to the Royal dockyards. A committee formed for investigating the matter produced the clearest evidence of decrease of navy timber throughout the kingdom, to the extent of at least two-thirds within the last forty years, according to the experience of thirty different dealers. The annual amount of such timber supplied from Dean Forest is stated to have averaged at this time about 2,000 loads.

Probably the most correct view of the disposition of the woods, plantations, &c., and of the district in general, is afforded by Mr.

Taylor's map of the county of Gloucester, published in 1777. It indicates the enclosures formed since the beginning of the century, as well as a considerable extent of woodland; indeed we know, from the return made to a Parliamentary survey taken in 1783, that the Forest contained 90,382 oak-trees, amounting to 95,043 loads, besides 17,982 beech-trees, in which were 16,492 loads; to protect which more effectually, Mr. Pitt inst.i.tuted the place of "watch-man," attaching to it a dwelling-house on Oaken Hill, and a small quant.i.ty of land, with a salary of 10 pounds, and any fines or rewards obtained on the conviction of timber stealers.

Very mischievous devastations and encroachments were nevertheless still continued. For instance, Mr. Slade, the purveyor to the navy, stated to the Treasury, that "he had discovered and was informed of most shameful depredations of the oak timber, which was cut every day by persons living round the Forest; and that for some years it had been the custom to steal the body of the tree in the night, and cut it into cooper's wares, leaving the top part on the spot, which the keepers took as their perquisite; and that whole trees were conveyed every spring tide to Bristol; and that when he was at Gatcomb, in one day there were five or six teams came with timber, planks, and knees, winter-felled, and other timber, among which were several useful pieces for s.h.i.+ps of fifty and sixty-four guns." It was also stated by Mr. Pitt, the Surveyor-General, that "everything in his power had been done to put a stop to them, but that the offenders had become so desperate and daring as to bid defiance to his deputies, and render every attempt of his in a summary way totally ineffectual," adding that, "not long before, a number of persons in disguise had openly cut down two large timber-trees at Yorkley, in Dean Forest, and wounded several keepers who attempted to oppose them." Mr.

Colchester likewise informed the Government that "the greatest part of the fine timber this Forest has been so famous for has been cut down, and the large and extensive tract of land formerly covered with the n.o.blest timber is now become a barren waste and heath."

Mr. Thomas Blunt, the deputy-surveyor, also reports, in allusion to this period, that, "having formerly pulled down and destroyed many cottages, fences, and enclosures, he had latterly been obliged to desist, fearing his life and property were endangered by the repeated threats and insults of the encroachers and their party." He adds that "about 1000 loads of oak timber were annually being felled for the use of the miners, of which at least one-fifth part was fit for naval purposes; and that the great waste, spoil, and destruction of timber and wood on the Forest is and hath been occasioned by an improper application of the timber delivered to the miners for the use of their works, one-half of which would have been more than sufficient, for that he had frequently seized large quant.i.ties of offal timber, and such other timber as the miners could not use in their works; and in particular that on or about the 28th of January, 1783, he seized and took 586 feet of oak-timber, and more than 200 cleft pieces of oak, called kibbles, from one George Martin, who acknowledged that they had been stolen. He had also seized at the Fire-Engine in the Forest between two and three waggonloads of timber, hewn up and converted by the colliers into cooper's wares for market, as the neighbourhood, being a great cinder country, would require." Joseph Pyrke, Esq., a verderer and deputy-constable, further stated that "numberless encroachments, enclosing one, two, or three acres, were taken in for gardens by the idle poor, and also by people in good circ.u.mstances," and that "nothing short of a capital offence would ever preserve the remaining timber."

We obtain information on the subject of pit-timber from Mr. Hartland's evidence before the Parliamentary Commissioners. He says that "the sorts of wood or timber delivered to the miners were oak and beech, and none other; chiefly oak in the summer, more pits being sunk in the summer than in the winter, and the keepers having the bark; more beech is allowed in the winter than oak. But oak timber is necessary, and is always allowed, for sinking the pits, and for making what the miners call the gateway, or gangway, from the body of coal to the pit, and also for the gutters in the levels, for draining off the water; but beech, birch, orle, holly, or any other kind of wood, would serve for the purpose of getting coal, and supporting the earth after the coal is taken away, but none is ever delivered to them but oak and beech." He goes on to say that "the evil of the colliers misapplying the timber served to them by the keepers could only be remedied by refusing it for the future to such parties as had been detected therein. Fining them was found impracticable, owing to the difficulty of proving the timber to have been the King's, without which proof the justices could hardly act."

Rewards of 20 pounds, and in gross cases of 50 pounds, were offered to any persons making a discovery whereby any of the offenders should be convicted; but without much effect, for the sufficient reason, as stated in the official report of 1788, that the resident officers derived advantages from the continuance of the abuse. Thus the Deputy-Surveyor took as perquisites the tops of all timber rejected by the navy, as well as of all stolen timber; all trees found felled by wood-stealers; one moiety of the cord-wood made from the offal-wood of timber delivered to the miners, and of stolen timber, besides from four pence to six pence for every tree felled for the use of the miners; whereby his salary was raised from 50 to 500 pounds a year. It was much the same with the six keepers, who received one s.h.i.+lling on every order for delivery of timber to the miners or colliers; the moiety of all offal-wood of timber cut for the miners; the moiety of all cord-wood of stolen timber; all lengths or pieces of trespa.s.s, and the bark of timber delivered to the miners, stolen timber called kibbles, and of all stolen timber found within their respective walks, by means of which their stipends were increased 100 pounds a year each.

Mr. Miles Hartland, the a.s.sistant-deputy-surveyor, in his examination, on the 15th of May, 1788, before the Dean Forest Commissioners, also stated that "he believed the cottages and encroachments in the Forest have nearly doubled within the last forty years. The persons who inhabit the cottages are chiefly poor labouring people who are induced to seek habitations in the Forest for the advantages of living rent free, and having the benefit of pasturage for a cow or a few sheep, and of keeping pigs in the woods; but many encroachments have been made by people of substance. The cattle of the cottagers are impounded when the Forest is driven by the keepers, as all other cattle are; and when the owners take them from the pound, paying the usual fees to the keepers, they turn them again into the Forest, having no other means of maintaining them. The greater number of the cottagers are from the neighbouring parishes; but there are also a great many from Wales, and from various parts of England, remote from the Forest. They are detrimental to the Forest by cutting wood for fuel, and for building huts, and making fences to the patches which they enclose from the Forest; by keeping pigs, sheep, &c., in the Forest all the year, and by stealing timber."

Speaking of the Forest roads, on which 11,631 pounds 3s. 10d. had been expended within the preceding twenty-five years, Mr. Hartland stated that "the princ.i.p.al were the road from Mitcheldean to Monmouth, and from Little Dean to Coleford. These two are public high roads, not necessary or useful to the Forest, but rather detrimental to it by affording the readier means to convey away the coal in waggons and carts, in which timber has sometimes been found concealed. Besides the above, there are several roads leading from the Forest to Newland, Coleford, and St.

Briavel's, which have been kept in repair at the charge of the Forest, but are of no use to it--rather the contrary. The only road now used for conveying the navy timber is the Purton Road, which is the most convenient for carriage to the water side from all parts of the Forest except the Chesnuts in Edge Hills, and the Lea Bailey; but there is no navy timber now in either of these places except the Lea Bailey. If the repairing of the public roads at the charge of the Forest were to be discontinued, the public would be obliged to put up turnpike gates on the roads, and collect tolls for repairing them, as in other parts of the country."

The parts of the Forest which Mr. Hartland described as being "bare of timber and yet fittest to be enclosed as being of a very proper soil, were Hazle Hill and Edge Hills, including Tanner's Hill, Green Bottom and Greenhill, Badc.o.c.k's Bailey and Chesnuts, East and West Haywood, part of Great Staple Edge, Meezeyhurst, Howbeach and Putmage, Buckhall, Moor and Bradley Hill, Bircham Dingles and Mason's Tump, Blakevellet, Breames Eves and Howell Hill, the Perch and Coverham, Great and Little Bourts, the Lea Bailey, Bailey Hill and Lining Wood, Great and Little Berry, Pluds and Smithers Tump, Blackthorn Turf and Serridge, Kensley's Ridge, Daniel Moor and Beechenhurst, 'forming in short twenty plantations,' which might, he thinks, be enclosed by a ditch about 3 feet deep and 3.5 wide, with a quick hedge planted upon the bank."

The detection of the various abuses which the above extracts exhibit const.i.tutes the first fruit of the enactment of the 26th George III.

(1786) for appointing commissioners to inquire into the state of the woods, forests, &c., of the Crown, and to report thereon, adding such observations as should occur to them for their future management and improvement.

Upwards of 2,000 pounds worth of timber out of the Forest was granted, 26th of April, 1786, towards building a gaol in Gloucester, as well as a penitentiary house and houses of correction within the county, at a total cost of 30,000 pounds, upon the plea that the old castle, on the site of which the gaol was to be built, belonged to the King, and also that one of the houses of correction was to be erected within the Forest, whereby the rights of the Crown would be supported. The execution of this grant required 1,690 trees.

The gentlemen appointed to act in the commission above named were, Sir Charles Middleton, John Call, Esq., and Arthur Holdsworth, Esq., who forthwith proceeded to collect information on the history and management of the Forest of Dean, as well as the claims and usages of the mining population. Their report, being the third of the series, was published on the 3rd of June, 1788. Commencing with an introduction respecting the Royal Forests generally, it proceeds to this Forest in particular, "as being in proportion to its extent by far the most valuable and the most proper for a nursery of naval timber," and refers first to the origin and results of the important Act of the 20th Charles II.; then to the abuses which have since crept in, with their disastrous effects; and, thirdly, to the best way of settling the claims of commoners, and how to render this Forest a very valuable nursery of timber for the royal navy.

All particulars bearing upon the two former heads have been as fully stated in the preceding pages of this work as circ.u.mstances permitted: under the last head, the suggestions of the commissioners amounted briefly to this,--that, agreeably to the plan begun about the year 1638, under the supervision of Sir Baynham Throckmorton, a commission should be created to superintend the enclosing of about 18,000 acres. The most wooded parts of the Forest were to be selected, and where the soil was best fitted for the growth of timber, avoiding the coalworks, and leaving out all necessary roads to be made and kept in repair by turnpikes, unless required for the carriage of timber only; the rights of commoners were to be discharged by allotting an equitable extent of land suitable for pasture, and the colliers to pay for all pit timber; the deer were to be disposed of, as demoralizing the inhabitants and injuring the young wood; and lastly, the commissioners recommended ejecting the cottagers who had established themselves in the Forest, as often before, in defiance of authority, and who numbered upwards of 2,000, occupying 589 cottages, besides 1,798 small enclosures containing 1,385 acres. As to defraying the cost of executing the above works, the commissioners recommended the sale of about 440 acres of detached pieces of Crown land adjoining the Forest, and if necessary dotard and decayed trees, or such as would never become fit for naval use.

The surveyors, Messrs. A. and W. Driver, calculated the fencing, planting, and keeping up the contemplated enclosures, for the whole of the ensuing 100 years, at 564,330 pounds, by which time the timber would probably be worth 10,680,473 pounds, and yield an annual net revenue of 52,052 pounds. According to the Report of these gentlemen, the Forest then contained about 24,000 oak-trees averaging one and a half loads each, and 24,000 oak-trees measuring about half a load each, not including unsound trees, of which there were many, besides a considerable number of fine large beech as well as young growing trees. The princ.i.p.al stock of young timber, from which any expectation could be formed, was in the Lea Bailey and Lining Woods, which were in general well stocked, and would produce a considerable quant.i.ty of fine timber, if properly fenced and protected from the depredations of plunderers. As to the names, extent, and character of the plantations then existing, they report as follows:--

"_The Great Enclosure_, which contained 743 acres 35 poles, was begun to be made about twelve years ago, with post and rail; but before the whole was completed, a great part was taken away, and nothing now remains but the bank; there are no young trees of any kind."

"_Stonedge Enclosure_ was made about twelve years ago; it contained 125 acres 1 rood 10 poles, and was fenced with a dry stone wall, which is, for the most part, destroyed; there are a great many thorns and hollies, with some very fine large oaks, but no young timber of any kind coming up."

"_Coverham Enclosure_, which contained 350 acres 2 roods 34 poles, was made about fifteen years ago, part with a dry stone wall, and part post and rails; nothing but the bank now remains. There was a great quant.i.ty of young timber, particularly birch, in this enclosure, which is nearly all destroyed in consequence of the fences being pulled down."

"_Serridge Enclosure_ was made about twelve years ago. It contained 409 acres 3 roods 20 poles, and was fenced with a dry stone wall, of which but little remains, being quite open in many parts; there are no young trees of any sort, and but few old trees."

"_Heywood Enclosure_ contained 715 acres 3 roods 38 poles, and was made about ten years ago, part with a dry stone wall, and part pales; very few traces remain, and in some parts none at all. We have been informed that great part of the wall was pulled down, or fell, before the whole was completed, and the pales carried away by waggons, &c., soon after they were put up; and from its present appearance it is evident no advantage has been derived from this enclosure, as there are no young trees in any part of it."

The three following enclosures, containing together 323 acres 1 rood 33 poles, are all that remain enclosed and in good repair, except the Buckholt Enclosure mentioned last, viz.:--

"_Stapleage Enclosure_, containing 183 acres 1 rood 3 poles, has been made about five years, part with dry stone wall, and part dead hedge; in general in good repair. In some parts of it there are a few small oak and beech plants, and also a few large oaks and beeches."

"_Speech House Enclosure_, containing 5 acres 6 poles, was made four years ago by the Deputy Surveyor, and planted with acorns which have produced some young oaks."

"_Birchwood Enclosure_, containing 135 acres 24 poles, has been made about five years, part with dead hedge and part dry stone wall, which in general is in good repair; there are but few young oaks coming up."

"_Buckholt Enclosure_, which contains 352 acres 3 roods 20 poles, has been made about eighty years, the greatest part with a stone wall, the rest hedge and ditch. The fences of this enclosure have of late years been kept in good repair. There are some very fine large oaks in it, but in general it contains a great quant.i.ty of fine young beech. There are also some oak-trees of about ten or fifteen years'

growth, and young oaks are coming up from acorns which have been set in vacant places. A few Weymouth pines have also been planted in this enclosure, which grow very well."

The total acreage of these enclosures was 3,220 acres 6 poles, and their position is shown pretty accurately by Mr. Taylor in his map of the county. Messrs. Driver's report also informs us that there were now 589 houses, 1,798 pieces of land encroached from the open Forest, comprising 1,385 acres 3 roods 21 poles, thus distributed in the six "walks:"--

Number of Number of pieces Their extent.

Cottages. of land A. R. P.

Speech-House Walk 1 2 0 0 21 Worcester do. 218 455 295 2 36 Herbert do. 95 487 325 2 22 Latimer do. 53 257 122 3 22 Danby do. 367 1201 744 1 21 York do. 98 173 195 3 15 Ellwood do. 113 397 417 3 10

Detached parts.

Wallmore 2 3 0 1 24 Northwood Green 3 4 0 1 33 The Bearce - 3 1 1 13 Mawkins Hazles - 5 15 1 28 The Tence 6 10 10 0 9 Glydden - 2 0 0 28 --- ---- ---- --- --- 589 1798 1385 3 21

Upwards of seventeen different Reports on the condition of "the Forest and Land Revenues of the Crown" were made to Parliament by the Commission of 1788, a fact which will partly explain the delay which took place in carrying out the plans recommended in the Commissioners' Third Report with reference to the Forest of Dean. The chief improvements effected were in the roads, under an Act pa.s.sed in the year 1795, for mending, widening, and altering the existing roads, and making new ones through the Forest to places adjoining, in the parishes of Newland, Lydney, and Awre. Mr. John Fordyce, now the Surveyor-General, alluding to the subject in his Report, dated 1797, says, that an arrangement had been made with the princ.i.p.al inhabitants in the neighbourhood, whereby the cost of keeping up the roads was to be met by means of turnpikes, the Crown constructing them in the first instance.

The year 1795 is a.s.sociated with the disturbances commonly called, even now, for they are not forgotten, "the Bread Riots." They arose from the circ.u.mstance of the foresters being mainly dependent upon the adjacent farms for their corn, but which was now, owing to war, largely bought up by the Government, mostly at Gloucester and Bristol, for the supply of the army and navy. Hence the inhabitants of the Forest district were left dest.i.tute of those supplies which the miners and colliers of the Forest considered they were ent.i.tled to, in return for the fuel which they furnished to the farmers.

The following extracts from the contemporary numbers of 'The Gloucester Journal' minutely relate the acts of violence which ensued:--

"On Sat.u.r.day morning, 30th October, 1795, as Mr. King's waggon, of Bollitree, was bringing a load of barley to the Gloucester Market, it was beset by a number of colliers from the Forest of Dean near the Lea Line, who inquired what the bags contained, and when told that it was barley, they cut the bags to examine; whilst this was pa.s.sing, a waggon, loaded with wheat, came up the hill belonging to Mr. Dobson, of Harthill, in the parish of Weston, which was taken to in the same manner, and both waggons with the grain were taken off to a place in the Forest of Dean, called Drybrook, where the people divided the corn, and sent back the waggons and horses to the owners." The next Sat.u.r.day "a party of foresters, chiefly from the neighbourhood of Lidbrook, stopped a waggon belonging to Mr. Prince, of Longhope, loaded with ninety-two bushels of wheat, and lodged it in Ross Market-house, professedly with the intention of selling it out on Monday morning at eight s.h.i.+llings per bushel. A magistrate, however, reached Ross early on Monday, and, accompanied by ten of the Ess.e.x Light Dragoons, saw the grain reloaded into Mr. Prince's waggon, and sent it off under their escort. In about an hour upwards of sixty foresters collected together, and set off in pursuit of the waggon.

The magistrate followed on horseback, and at the Lea he came up with the waggon, which he sent on, and ordered the cavalry to stop till the approach of the mob. They soon made their appearance, and being at first somewhat refractory, the ringleader was taken into custody; when, after the most persuasive remonstrances of this very active magistrate, and the patient forbearance of the soldiery, they were at last prevailed upon to give up the desperate idea of rescuing the grain, and returned peaceably to Ross."

A reputed highwayman, and noted deerstealer, named William Stallard, living on the Upper Purlieu, above the Hawthorns, is stated to have been the instigator of these outrages, and others of a similar kind on Mr.

Prince's flour-mill at Longhope. His lawless career, however, brought him to the gallows at Gloucester for horse-stealing, at the age of forty, on the 16th August, 1800, as appears by the records of that gaol. The decline of the market in Mitcheldean is said to date from the above disturbances, which naturally deterred the neighbouring farmers from sending their grain thither for sale. {85}

Nor were the bread riots confined to the northern side of the Forest, as upon "the evening of the same day, November 9th, many persons a.s.sembled at Hanstell, in the parish of Awre, in this county, where a vessel belonging to Eversham, and bound to Bristol with a cargo of pease, oil, flour, leather, and wheat, was waiting for the tide. About twenty men boarded her, examined the lading, and, upon discovering the flour, gave loud huzzas, when the bank was instantly covered with their comrades, who had many horses in waiting, with which they proceeded to carry off the flour, though the trowmen (unable to defend the vessel, and menaced with instant destruction) had offered to sell it to them at a reasonable price. About 7 o'clock one of the trowmen contrived to slip ash.o.r.e, ran to Newnham, and sent off an express to Gloucester for immediate military aid; but fortunately that a.s.sistance was nearer at hand. In consequence of some apprehension of a disturbance at Mitcheldean, an officer, with a serjeant and ten file of the Ess.e.x Fencibles Cavalry, had marched into the place early in the morning, and upon the arrival of the express from Newnham instantly set forth for the scene of depredation, under the command of Lieutenant Wood, and headed by Mr. Pyrke, a magistrate of Little Dean. The freebooters fled in every direction, but five men, named Thomas Yemm, Thomas Rosser, Richard Brain, George Marfell, and John Meek, being the most active ringleaders, were apprehended, some in the act of conveying away the flour upon packhorses, some had sacks of it upon their shoulders, some were just landed from the vessel; and many were busied on the bank, which was strewed with flour, dividing the sacks into smaller quant.i.ties to render it more portable, for even women and children were of the number." The five men already named were fully committed on the following Tuesday to Gloucester Castle, there to be tried at the Spring a.s.sizes, being guarded thither by one hundred of the Surrey Fencibles, who had arrived in Newnham at 3 o'clock previously.

Shortly afterwards, the serjeant of the military, called out on this occasion, was desperately bruised by a stone thrown at him by some desperadoes as he was riding near Mitcheldean, and, on a subsequent Thursday, some villains fired a piece loaded with slugs into the bed-chamber of Mr. Pyrke. At the ensuing a.s.sizes, Thomas Yemm and Thomas Rosser were left for execution, which, although, from the excellent character they previously bore, some gentlemen of the Forest, and of the Grand Jury, interceded with his Majesty on their behalf, they underwent on the 11th April, 1797, acknowledging the justice of their sentence.

The extraordinary scarcity, and consequent high price of provisions about this time, were so acutely felt in this neighbourhood, that the Crown distributed 1,000 pounds worth of grain amongst the distressed Foresters.

CHAPTER VI.

A.D. 1800-1831.

Lord Nelson's remarks on the Forest--Free miners endeavour to restore their Court of Mine Law--White Mead Park planted--Act of 1808, authorising the replanting of the Forest; six commissioners appointed for that purpose--Six enclosures formed in 1810--Mice--Inquiry as to the best mode of felling timber--Last of the enclosures formed 1816--First Forest church consecrated--High Meadow Woods purchased--General condition of the Forest--Unsuccessful efforts to restore the encroachments to the Crown--Plantations mended over--Ellwood and the Great Doward Estates purchased--The blight--Single trees planted out by the roads--Blight on the oaks.

There is a statement of Lord Nelson's relating to this Forest, written about the year 1802, {87} in which he says: "Nothing in it can grow self-sown, for the deer bark all the young trees. Vast droves of hogs are allowed to go into the woods in the autumn, and if any fortunate acorn escapes their search, and takes root, then flocks of sheep are allowed to go into the Forest, and they bite off the tender shoot." He speaks of "a set of people called Forest free miners, who consider themselves as having a right to dig for coal in any part they please,"

adding that "trees which die of themselves are considered as of no value to the Crown. A gentleman told me," (he says,) "that in shooting on foot (for on horseback it cannot be seen, being hid by the fern, which grows a great height), the trees of fifty years' growth, fit for buildings, fencings, &c., are cut just above ground entirely through the bark, and in two years die," so becoming a perquisite to the authorities. Lord Nelson calculated that the Forest would sell for 460,000 pounds. He forcibly concludes: "The reason why timber has of late years been so much reduced has been uniformly told me--that, from the pressure of the times, gentlemen who had 1000 to 5000 pounds worth of timber on their estates, although only half grown (say fifty years of age), were obliged to sell it to raise temporary sums--say to pay off legacies. The owner cannot, however sorry he may feel to see the beauty of his place destroyed, and what would be treble the value to his children annihilated, help himself.

It has struck me forcibly that if Government could form a plan to purchase of such gentlemen the growing oak, it would be a national benefit, and a great and pleasing accommodation to such growers of oak as wish to sell."

Mr. Fordyce's second report, as Surveyor-General of the Land Revenues of the Crown, appeared on the 14th of December, 1802; but neither this nor his third, dated the 4th of March, 1806, says anything about the Forest of Dean. In 1807 the free miners of the district held a meeting, at which a resolution was pa.s.sed, earnestly requesting the wardens of the Forest to hold a Court of Mine Law, as soon as possible, with the view of regulating the levels, pits, and engines.

Mr. Fordyce's fourth and final report appeared on the 6th of April, 1809, but it only speaks of the Forest so far as related to the lands called "Whitemead Park," hitherto in the occupation of Lord Berkeley, but whose lease would expire in January, 1808, and was sought to be renewed. The Surveyor-General declined complying with the request for renewal, upon the ground that the Park was unfavourably situated for farming purposes, and that the buildings on it were in very bad repair; whereas a large quant.i.ty of very fine timber, valued at 11,736 pounds, had grown up on the land, proving the excellence of the soil for that purpose; besides which, it was situated in the midst of the Forest, and Mr. Fordyce determined to plant the whole of it with oak at the earliest opportunity.

This circ.u.mstance appears to have stimulated the Government to commence in good earnest the forming of plantations, in accordance with the suggestions made in the Commissioners' Report of 1788, {89} which had been kept in view ever since, and as authorized by the old Acts of the 20th of Charles II. c. 3, and 9 and 10 William III. c. 36.

The propriety, however, of acting upon these old enactments was now doubted, as they had been so long overlooked or irregularly executed; and hence the declaratory Act of the 48th of George III., c. 72, was pa.s.sed in 1808, confirming the original power to enclose 11,000 acres, as well as legalizing the enclosures of Buckholt, Stapledge, Birchwood, and Acorn Patch, formed a few years previously, containing altogether 676 acres, and making it felony to persist in breaking down any of the fences belonging to the same. The above-named enclosures were the only ones then existing. The Buckholt princ.i.p.ally contained beech; Stapledge was thinly stocked with oak, except on the north side, and there called Little Stapledge, on which there was plenty; and Birchwood had some cl.u.s.ters of natural young oaks scattered about it. The Acorn Patch was well filled with thriving young oaks about 25 years old. The same Act likewise directed that the contemplated plantations should be marked out under the supervision of not less than six Commissioners, who were named as follows:--