lso there
is an oak entirely variegated, containing 100 feet of timber; besides
several other fine trees near. There are five very large beech-trees
growing about two miles from Coleford on the road to Mitcheldean, and
others likewise, almost as large, on the Blaize Bailey, besides several
more near Danby Lodge; but the finest of all the beeches in the Forest is
near the entrance to Whitemead Park, near York Lodge, measuring 17 feet
at 6 feet from the ground. Most of the lesser oaks which have become
timber, and have not been removed by the recent "falls," are probably the
remains of the plantations made in 1670, such as the various flourishing
oaks which may be noticed near the Speech House, on the Lea Bailey, the
Lining Wood, and in a few other places. Many of the old hollies seem to
belong to the same date, being either indigenous, or planted about this
time to serve as food for the deer. One of the largest of those growing
near the Speech House measures 9 feet in girth at 4 feet from the ground.

[Picture: An Oak, near York Lodge]

During the earlier half of the last century the devastations were so
rapid as to necessitate re-enclosing and re-planting various parts, about
the year 1760; but the effort to restock the whole of the Forest as it
now appears was reserved to 1810 and the thirty subsequent years. Its
present aspect, with very few exceptions, is such as to afford the best
hopes that by the close of the present century a large proportion of the
woods will be yielding profitable timber, provided the crops be duly
protected from injury, which otherwise the rapidly increasing population
of the neighbourhood will too surely occasion. Nine-tenths of the
present stock are oaks; the rest are Spanish chesnuts, Scotch fir, larch,
spruce, beech, and a few elms, sycamores, and horse-chesnuts; birch grows
spontaneously in most parts of the Forest.

The following Table exhibits the quantity of timber growing at different
times in the Forest within the last two hundred years.

A.D. Tons. Cords. Loads fit
for the
Navy.
1635 61,928 153,209 14,350 The trees
generally
decayed;