)
Most of those forests were given away by King James the First. Pewsham
Forest was given to the Duke of Buckingham, who gave it, I thinke, to
his brother, the Earle of Anglesey. Upon the disafforesting of it, the
poor people made this rhythme:-
"When Chipnam stood in Pewsham's wood,
Before it was destroy'd,
A cow might have gone for a groat a yeare-
but now it is denyed".
The metre is lamentable; but the cry of the poor was more lamentable.
I knew severall that did remember the going of a cowe for 4d. per
annum. The order was, how many they could winter they might summer:
and pigges did cost nothing the going. Now the highwayes are encombred
with cottages, and the travellers with the beggars that dwell in them.
___________________________________
The deer of the forest of Groveley were the largest of fallow deer in
England, but some doe affirm the deer of Cranborne Chase to be larger
than Groveley. Quaere Mr. Francis Wroughton of Wilton concerning the
weight of the deer; as also Jack Harris, now keeper of Bere Forest,
can tell the weight of the best deere of Verneditch and Groveley: he
uses to come to the inne at Sutton. Verneditch is in the parish of
Broad Chalke. 'Tis agreed that Groveley deer were generally the
heaviest; but there was one, a buck, killed at Verneditch about an°.
165-, that out-weighed Groveley by two pounds. Dr. Randal Caldicot
told me that it was weighed at his house, and it weighed eight score
pounds.
Pages:
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147