Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1900-02-03
SOME ENGLISH FORESTS
Celebrated Tracts Of Land That have
Escaped the Despoilers Az.
Historic Spots That Breathe an Atmos-
tiful Woodland Scenery of Epping.
From the Overland Monthly.

From the Overland Monthly.
Sherwood forest is gone. but the royal
forest of Epping still boasts of some beau
tifu1 woodland scenery. Almost adjoining
were Hainault forest and Middlesex forest.
Epping has now an area of only three
thousand acres Of woodland. although so
late as 1873 there were nine thousand acres
of forest trees. The River Roding divided
Epping forest from the forest of HainaiIft
on the southeast, but the latter was long
ago disafforested. Epping forest formerly
bore the name of Waitham forest, surround
ing Waltham Abbey, and here the ancient
kings enjoyed much sport 1t covered all
Essex. and extended almost to the gates of
London. "One may see today the hawthorn
and the wild rose growing in Epping forest
just as they grew four hundred years ago.
But the forest has been miserably curtailed
of its proportions. A great slice, wedges
shaped, has been cut out bodily, and is
new built upon, the remnant having been
preserved as playground for the great
metropolis. Hainault forest has perished
these fifty years, and is cut up into farms,
save for a fragment: of Middlesex forest
nothing remains except the little piece m
closed in Lord Mansfield's park" But in
former days the forest came down to the
hamlet of Isedun, afterward merry Isling-
ten" So with Medwood, Holt. Wolmer and
HARDWOOD forests-they are little more than
Epping forest but speaks Of the past. King
Ford and Kings Mead recall the Saxon
Alfred; the ancient hunting lodge of Queen
Elizabeth is near Chingford-that is. the
Kings Ford mentioned above: near Lougn-
ton there are the remains of an ancient
British camp where Queen Boadicea gave
battle to the Roman general Seutonius,
who, in turn, had made a camp hard by,
covering twelve acres: Epping forest, it
will be remembered, figures in Barnaby
Rudge: and upon Buckhurst Hill was let
loose the stag on Easter Monday for the
historic Epping hunt.
The forest of Arden the scene of Shakes
peares comedy, AS You Like It," was
really the name of one of the ancient for
ests of England, believed to have covered
al one time a large part Of the eastern
tiges of it remain, except in certain parish
and township names. it has by some been
Identified with the forest alluded to in
Ivanhoe.' and by others with Epping for
est. But the weight of probability is in
favor of Sherwood forest, or of that great
stretch of woodland which covered the mid
land counties of England 1t is a matter
Oh history That the forest scenes in "A Mid
summer Nights Dream were drawn from
the locality about Shakespeare's home.
Dean forest, in Gloucestershire was an
GENTLY wooded quite through, and even in
the last century, though much curtailed
measured twenty miles in length and ten
IN breadth. 1t was famous for its great
oaks, long the sole material for building
English ships of war-the wooden walls of
old England" 1t now consists of A mic
turesqCe. billy tract. 22,OOO acres in extent
lying between the Severn and the WE It
IS mostly crown property. and about half
OF 1t IS yet preserved for the growth of
lumber Tor the national shipyards. 1t con-
talnS oak, beech and other woods: orcha rds
yielding the famous Styre apple cider; coal
and iron mines, and stone quarries furnish
ing building materials, grindstones mill
stones, troughs and rollers. 1t is divided
INTO SIX walks" The inhabitants are
chiefly miners. and they were once a law
less set. The former population had many
ancient privileges, acquired by birth. For
example, by working a year and a day in
the forest of Dean a man obtained exemp-
ton from rates and taxes. free pasturage
right OF mining-a sixth of the produce be-
ing Que TO the Sovereign-and access to the
woods for timber for their smelling works
Even at the present day the inhabitants
are exempted from county rates, and have
Tetalned some other ancient privileges.
Riots in this district, when more than 5000
persons assembled in the forest and de-
moiished upward of fifty miles of walk and
renee, throwing open 10000 acres of planta-
lions, took place on the Sth of June. 1871
The New forest, in Hampshire was lit
orally made or 'afforested," whence its
name, by William the Conqueror, in 1O79-S5
II Is said that the country for thirty miles
IN every direction was practically depop-
u!ated.
Amongst the ruins of the church
The midnight raven found q perch,
melancholy place:
HE ruthless conqueror cast down,
Woe worth the deed. that little town,
10 lengthen out his chase.
The present limits are triangular in
shape. bounded on the west by the River
Avon, on the south by the English chan
mel and on the northeast by a line run
ming from the borders of Wiltshire along
Southampton Water: the area is 9IOOO
acres. OF the New forest, Queen Victoria
owns 1000 acres of absolute and sixty-
three acres of contingent crown property
low 40 inSf ,i<,ye,
of Dean. from several other forests, and
from woodland properties in and about
London.
There are many historic trees in the old
English forests Clumber. the seat of the
Duke of Newcastle; Welbeck, the seat of
the Duke Of Portland. and Thoresby, the
ancient seat of the Duke of Kingston, are
noted no less for their spacious parks than
for the remarkable trees adjoining them
AT Welbeck there is the Greendale oak an
oak estimated by one authority to be 7O0
and by another 1900 years old. This oak
is probably the MethuSelah of his race al
though 1t may be noted that there are few
forests which do not. through local his
torians. advance plausible claims for like
distinction. The Greendale oak, nearly a
hundred and fifty years ago. was deprived
of its heart by the eccentric desire of a
former owner to make a tunnel through
the trunk. This novel piece of engineering
was effected without apparent injury to
the tree; an opening was made through
which Duke of Portland drove a car
rage, and three horses and horsemen could
ride abreast. This arch is ten feet three
inches wide. cabinet made from the
excavated lakewood for the Countess of
Oxford is one of the curiosities of Welbeck
Abbey. 1t is ornamented with represen-
tation of the grand old tree. which is now
shored and supported against the ele-
ments, before which it must otherwise
speedily succumb. The Spread Oak of
Thoresby extends it's arms over a diameter
of 1870 feet Of ground, and can give shelter
to a thousand men. In the hollow of the
Major Oak seven persons have dined with
comfort. This tree is remarkably perfect
in form-the true type of a sturdy oak that
is still prepared to brave the tempest and
the breeze. The Parliament Oak is another
decrepit patriarch of Sherwood forest; 1t
is supported by friendly artificial aids. and
its trunk is now split in twain-symbol, it
might be said, of the government and the
opposition. which are the life of the sys-
tenn whose name 1t bears