Manwood, who wrote towards the end of Elizabeth's reign, had, long before this, predicted what must happen, and the straits to which the English navy, as we know was the case, would be reduced. In Charles I.'s time the Forests were in a shameful condition. The keepers were in arrears of wages, and paid themselves out of the timber.[1] The consequences soon came. There was nothing left but wind-shaken and decayed trees in the New Forest, quite unfit for building ships,[2] Charles II., however, in 1669, probably influenced by Evelyn's Silva, which appeared four years before, and had given a great impulse, throughout England, to planting, enclosed three hundred acres as a nursery for young oaks. But the waste and devastation still continued. At last, William III. legislated on the subject, for, to use the words of the Act, "the Forest was in danger of being destroyed;"[3] and power was given to plant six thousand acres. In 1703 came the great hurricane, which Evelyn so deplores, uprooting some four thousand of the best oaks.
- ↑ See the report of Peter Pett, one of the King's master shipwrights, "Touching the fforests of Shottover and Stowood." Record Office. Domestic Series. No. 216, f. 56. i. May 10th, 1632. The New Forest, however, seems from this report to have been much better in this respect.
- ↑ See "Necessarie Remembrances concerning the preservation of timber, &c." Record Office. Domestic Series. Charles I., No. 229, f. 114. Without date, but some time in 1632.
- ↑ 9th and 10th of William III., chap, xxxvi., 1693. An abstract of the Act may be found in the Journals of the House of Commons, vol. xliv., appendix, pp. 576-578.
an unfit way to gratify this petitioner, for under pretence of such Moorefall trees much waste is often committed." Record Office. Domestic Series, No. 34, April 2nd, 1661, f. 14. Hence the reason of Charles's warrant in the case of Winefred Wells, as he knew that the Lord Treasurer was so strongly opposed to any such grants.
