Symmond’s Rock, Earl Fitzharding’s Frog Pit, Penswell’s, Eastbatch, and Tufton, paying a rental to the Crown of £104, and Morgan’s Folly Colliery, rented at £4.

Proceeding to the year 1848, the Report of the Commissioners of Woods, which appeared in September, informs us that upwards of 18,000 acres in the district of the Forest were covered with wood and timber. Unfortunately blight again prevailed, of which in the month of June Mr. Machen’s MS. records:—“The oak-trees have been attacked for several years past by a small caterpillar which eats all the leaves, and this year the destruction has been greater than ever; the whole Forest has been almost leafless; the high ground and the low, the large timber and the young plantations, have all suffered alike. The first time I noticed this blight was in 1830, when the High Meadow woods and many parts of the Forest suffered, but it was principally confined to the large timber. It has continued more or less every year since, but this has been the worst year of any; yet it is remarkable that the High Meadow Woods are free from it and in fine foliage, but no part of the Forest has escaped. The grub, a little black caterpillar, comes to life just as the oak is coming into leaf, and feeds upon the leaves. It attacks no other tree; the beech, chesnut, &c., stand in full verdure surrounded by the brown and leafless oaks. They envelop the tree in a web they spin about the end of May; they enclose themselves in a leaf curled up, and remain in a chrysalis state until the middle of June or July, when they change into a pale greenish small moth that flies about the trees in myriads, and lay their eggs in the bark of the trees for future mischief, and then die. There seems to be no means of checking their ravages. The rooks come in great numbers, and they and other birds destroy great quantities. The trees put forth a second foliage at the midsummer shoot, but not full, and the shoot of the year and the growth of the trees must be injured.”

Under the date of the 30th of April, 1849, Messrs. John Clutton and Richard Hall report to the

Government, on the Forest of Dean, that “there are about five hundred acres of the open Forest now covered with old timber, which is for the most part very fine and of very large size, and is nearly all of good quality. Our opinion is that a large portion of this timber is fit for naval purposes, and we suppose it to be worth £49,000. Its precise age we are not enabled to discover, but our impression is that this timber is about 160 years of age. It has clearly been planted since 1667, as it is recorded that only 200 trees remained on the Forest in that time. There is some old timber fit for the navy in the enclosed plantations, of the probable value of £34,500. There are also about 500 acres of land planted in the Forest with single trees, which are in process of becoming fit for naval purposes; and there is a further portion occupied with trees of spontaneous growth. These, with the plantations thrown open, we estimate at 3,000 acres; the value of these we estimate at £106,000. The Crown has now occupied with young and old timber about 14,000 acres of the Forest.”

The same reporters speak of “the existing plantations being in a very good state, having been judiciously and well planted, fully stocked, well managed, and sufficiently protected. They are properly drained and amply thinned; so that there is upon the ground, in a state to proceed to maturity, as good a crop as can be found to exist in any part of England, taking extent and quality of soil into consideration. The plantations reflect great credit upon all parties concerned in their management, the system of which we should strongly advise to be continued. To remove the young trees with the view of converting the land into arable cultivation would involve a loss of £280,500, besides that of the increasing net annual profit, which official returns prove to be as follows:—

£. s. d.
From 1828 to 1832, or average of 5 years 1531 17 4
„ 1833 to 1838 „ 2475 16 2
„ 1839 to 1843 „ 3566 17 1
„ 1843 to 1848 „ 5482 11 3

Early in this year a select Committee of the House of Commons was appointed to inquire into the expenditure and management of the Woods, Forests, and Land Revenues of the Crown, Viscount Duncan being in the chair. Mr. Machen was examined by the committee with regard to the Forest of Dean, and amongst other particulars stated that “the fact of the expenditure on account of this Forest having increased within the last six years was explained by the circumstance that £3,000 a year had been laid out on the new plantations, and that the balance in favour of the Crown had been still further reduced by the recent fall in the price of bark and also of timber, owing probably to peculiar difficulties attending its removal.” He observed that large immediate profits could not be obtained from the oak plantations, which would, however, increase in value at the rate of about £15,000 a year; and moreover that a considerable revenue from the sale of timber-props for the mine-works, &c., might be expected. Mr. Machen also reported an improvement in the order and conduct of the inhabitants of the Forest generally, the fruit, it may reasonably be assumed, of the many years of pious labour which the clergy and Christian teachers of the neighbourhood had bestowed on the people. The Act of 1841, under which the mines of the Forest were awarded, had, he said, been found most useful. Before the arrangements under this Act were effected, much quarrelling and litigation were continually taking place. The royalty paid by the various mines to the Crown amounted to £4,000 a year, and was steadily increasing; eight years ago it was only £700.

The evidence of Mr. Langham, the Assistant Deputy Surveyor, relates to the mode in which pit-timber and cordwood for the charcoal burner were supplied, as well as the method pursued in planting, being that of about 1,300 young oaks to the acre, and the same of larch, four feet apart. Mr. Nicholson, a tenant of the Park End Colliery, forcibly urged the construction of branch lines of railway, connecting the different works in the Forest

with the leading lines, to the certain benefit of the coal-master, the consumer, and the Crown, the existing tramways being inadequate to their purpose.

Mr. Isaiah Teague took the same view, and further supported the recommendation that greater facilities should be given, not only to the mineowners to build cottages for their men, but also that the operatives themselves should be enabled to buy small plots of land for the purpose, they being now frequently obliged to live far distant from their places of work, there being few, if any, houses situated near them. These witnesses, as well as several others, agreed in stating that it was inexpedient to have deer in the Forest, as unsettling the habits of the people, and encouraging poaching. They yet admitted, however, that the deer were highly ornamental.