lue of a tree was determined by the
number of hogs that could lie under it, in the Saxon time; and in this
survey of the Norman period, we find entries of useless woods, and woods
without pannage, which to some extent were considered identical. In some
of the woods there were patches of cultivated ground, as the entries
show, where the tenant had cleared the dense undergrowth and had his
corn land and his meadows. Even the fen lands were of value, for their
rents were paid in eels.

There is only mention of five forests in this record, Windsor,
Gravelings (Wiltshire), Winburn, Whichwood, and the New Forest.
Undoubtedly there were many more, but being no objects of assessment
they are passed over. It would be difficult not to associate the memory
of the Conqueror with the New Forest, and not to believe that his
unbridled will was here the cause of great misery and devastation.
Ordericus Vitalis says, speaking of the death of William's second son,
Richard: "Learn now, my reader, why the forest in which the young prince
was slain received the name of the New Forest. That part of the country
was extremely populous from early times, and full of well-inhabited
hamlets and farms. A numerous population cultivated Hampshire with
unceasing industry, so that the southern part of the district
plentifully supplied Winchester with the products of the land. When
William I ascended the throne of Albion, being a great lover of forests,
he laid waste more than sixty parishes, compelling the inhabitants to
emigrate to other places, and substituted beasts of the chase for human
beings, that he might satisfy his ardor for hunting." There is probably
some exaggeration in the statement of the country being "extremely
populous from early times." This was an old woody district, called
Ytene. No forest was artificially planted, as Voltaire has imagined; but
the chases were opened through the ancient thickets, and hamlets and
solitary cottages were demolished.

It is a curious fact that some woodland spots in the New Forest have
still names with the terminations of _ham_ and _ton_. There are many
evidences of the former existence of human abodes in places now
solitary; yet we doubt whether this part of the district plentifully
supplied Winchester with food, as Ordericus relates; for it is a sterile
district, in most places, fitted for little else than the growth of
timber. The lower lands are marsh, and the upper are sand. The
Conqueror, says t