" It is true that the Conqueror forged a
charter purporting to date from Canute in which the king's sole right
to take beasts of chase was asserted, and to this he appealed as
justifying his harsh new laws; but it is untrue that he depopulated
and destroyed a thriving district to make a wilderness for the red
deer. "We shall find," says Warner, "that the lands comprised in this
tract (the New Forest) appear from their low valuation in the time of
the Confessor to have been always unproductive in comparison with
other parts of the kingdom; and that notwithstanding this pretended
devastation they sunk (in many instances) but little in their value
after their afforestment. So that the fact seems to have been, William,
finding this tract in a barren state and yielding but little profit,
and being strongly attached to the pleasures of the chase, converted it
into a royal forest, without being guilty of those violences to the
inhabitants of which Henry of Huntingdon, Malmesbury, Walter Mapes, and
others complain."
Of this great New Forest, Lyndhurst was made the capital and the
administrative centre, and such it is still.
Pages:
343
344
345
346
347
348
349
350
351
352
353
354
355
356
357
358
359
360
361
362
363
364
365
366
367