It says little respecting this Forest, merely alluding to it in common with the other royal forests, as fitted to take its place in supplying timber to the navy, which required 88,659 loads annually, a quantity so large as to be equivalent to 1,000 acres of oak a century old. In their present state the Royal Forests could not supply a tenth part of this amount, and would always be deficient unless 1,000 acres were planted every year for the next 100 years, by which time the above quantity might be annually felled. Ere this year ended, the Enclosure Commissioners concluded their labours of setting out the rest of the 11,000 acres in Dean Forest.
The plantations made the ensuing year of 1813 were—
| A. | R. | P. | ||
| Oaken Hill | 477 | 2 | 11 | near Park End. |
| Park Hill | 141 | 0 | 26 | „ Park End. |
| Blakeney Hill | 816 | 1 | 0 | „ Blakeney. |
| ---- | -- | -- | ||
| 1434 | 3 | 37 |
Permission was also given to the Severn and Wye Tramroad Company to construct a branch to the colliery at the Ivy Moore Head, as well as to Messrs. Protheroe to erect a steam engine at “Catch Can.” The area of the encroachments in the Forest in 1813, and which had at that time been taken in more than twenty years, amounted to 1,610 acres 2 roods 18 poles,
divided into 2,239 patches, on which were 785 houses, occupied by 1,111 persons.
In 1814 the three following extensive enclosures were made:—
| A. | R. | P. | ||
| Stapledge | 943 | 2 | 17 | near Cinderford. |
| Nag’s Head Hill | 809 | 2 | 4 | „ Coleford. |
| Russell’s | 990 | 0 | 16 | „ Park End. |
The last of them, being the largest in the Forest, was not regularly planted, but left for the most part to natural growth.
It was during this year especially, but to a certain degree also in the preceding and succeeding ones, that this Forest and the New Forest were visited with an enormous number of mice. They appeared in all parts, but particularly in Haywood enclosure, destroying a very large proportion of the young trees, so much so that only four or five plants to an acre were found uninjured by them. The roots of five years old oaks and chesnuts were generally eaten through just below the surface of the ground, or wherever their runs proceeded. Sometimes they were found to have barked the young hollies round the bottom, or were seen feeding on the bark of the upper branches. These mice were of two kinds, the common long-tailed field mouse, and the short-tailed. There were about fifty of these latter sort to one of the former. The long-tailed mice had all white breasts, and the tail was about the same length as the body. [95] These were chiefly caught on the wet greens in the Forest, and the short-tailed were caught both on the wet and dry grounds.
A variety of means were resorted to for their destruction, such as cats, poisons, and traps, but with little success. A Mr. Broad, who had been employed by the Admiralty, and had been successful, in killing the rats and mice in the fleet, was sent down, and tried several plans, all of which failed. At last, a miner living on Edge Hills, named Simmons, came forward, and said