Page:The New Forest - its history and its scenery.djvu/61

Rh still learnt no lesson from the Ship-money, and would have pawned England itself, rather than yield to that obstinacy, which was but the other side of his weakness of character.

With the decline of hawking and hunting, the Forest Laws fell into decay, and the Forests themselves were less regarded, and their boundaries less strictly observed. Under the Stuarts, we find the first traces of that system, which at last resulted in the almost entire devastation of the New Forest. James I. granted no less than twenty assart lands—agri exsariti—there having been previously only three; and gave the privilege of windfalls to various persons; whilst officers actually applied to him for trees in lieu of pay for their troops: and Charles II. bestowed the young woods of Brockenhurst to the maids of honour of his court. 43