THE WOODLANDS OF ESSEX. 113
lands were brought under the plough. The enclosures were
made under the authority of private or personal Acts of
Parliament, many of which were probably never printed, but
copies are preserved either by the Lords of the Manors or
amongst the parish records. In the footnote I give particulars
of a few of these private Acts of Parliament.21
ESSEX WOODLANDS OF THE PRESENT DAY.
Arthur Young, writing at the commencement of the 18th
century, estimated the woodlands in Essex at 50,000 acres. He
also says that the Oak, the Ash, the Sycamore, and the Horn-
beam thrive best in the county. During the 18th century there
was a great reduction in our woodlands ; the price of corn rising
so greatly in the first half of the century that much of our
woodland and waste was converted into arable land. Hence we
find that in 1895, when the last official return was published,
Essex woodlands had shrunk to 30,000 acres, or 3.13 per cent. of
the total area of the county, the average being 5.4 per cent.
for the whole of England.
The history of the timber growing upon the estate of Sir
Thomas Barrett Lennard will serve as an example of the vicis-
situdes of woodlands upon Essex estates. "At Lord Newburgh's
death in 1644 the park at Belhus was full of Oak, Ash, Elm, and
other timber, planted in walks and places of pleasure convenient
for beautifying an ancient seat, wherein Lord Newbery and bis
ancestors resided. The cutting down of these by his widow and
her second husband, which made great havoc and spoil, caused
Richard Leonard (2nd Lord Newburgh's devisee) to bring
21 The following are a few of the Acts of Parliament authorizing the enclosure of
heaths in Essex:—
Dedham Hall. 1800. 40 Geo. III. c. 85.
Boxted Hall, enclosing land in 1813. 51 Geo. III. c. 62.
Inclosing lands in Manor of and Parish of Lexden. 1819, 60 George III.
Tolleshunt Major, otherwise Tolleshunt Beckenham, dividing, allotting, and enclosing
heaths and waste ground in 1801. 4 Geo. III. c. 129.
Thorrington, inclosing lands in Manor and Parish of, 1810. 50 Geo. III. c 28.
Tiptree Heath was enclosed about 1840.
West Bergholt in 1866.
Ardleigh Heath in 1849. 10. Geo. IV. (961/2 acres).
Note.—From the "Inquisition of Enclosures" (1597) by the Commissioners of
Enclosures (see Domeseday of Enclosures, Ed. J. S. Leadham Longman, Green and
Co.) we find that land in the parishes of Wigboro, Salcot Virley, Layer Breton.
Langenhoe, and Fingringhoe, land which has been ploughed, is now enclosed and
returned to pasture. Possibly we may inter from this that corn lands were not
enclosed during the forest period.