Deer were taken in small numbers for the king's table and as gifts; but
increasingly their function was to form perquisites, "fee deer", for Forest
officials. We also hear of organized poaching, especially in the 1730s, the Black
Act notwithstanding (53). Instruments included a deer snare — even now the
deer-stealer's favourite weapon — found in 1746 and "a net called a thief net
bated with bottles flowers looking glasses etc.'' seized in 1753 (48).
Falling numbers of deer caused anxiety. In 1639 a special enclosure was
made for feeding them in winter (10). There were six general restraints on
killing them between 1643 and 1770 (24). In the 1780s the Forests were yielding
about 12 deer a year.
Timber
We hear about timber from the Crown as landowner and from the naval
dockyards as a consumer. Henry VIII (33) and James I (37) drew timber for the
dockyards from elsewhere in Essex, but it was not until the 1650s that the
Forests were thought to contain timber suitable for shipbuilding. In 1652 1000
trees were ordered to be felled in "Waltham Forest" for building frigates. 500
further "spare (?spire = maiden) trees" and 100 pollards were later marked for
this purpose. Timber also came from Wallwood in Leyton, not part of the
physical Forest (50).
Some of these orders were evidently carried out, for in 1662 the Navy
Commissioners reported that there were only 300 loads of timber — a load is
either 40 or 50 cubic feet — in the Essex Forests fit for building second-rate
ships, and 700-800 trees fit for repairs. 416 loads were duly felled; Samuel Pepys
that August "saw many trees of the King's a-hewing" in the Forest (51,34).
At this time the Navy Commissioners may have cast a greedy eye on the
timber of other landowners in the Forest, for in 1670 they listened to a com-
plaint that the lord of the manor of Sewardstone
having felled 50 or 60 pollard oaks this year & a great many last, & sold
them, if he so goes on, all his Majesty's oaks in Waltham Forest will soon
be destroyed. (52)
Although no actual encroachments on other people's timber are recorded, the
Commissioners were prepared to use even boilings to avoid having to spend
money on timber.
Later some poor quality timber trees in Hainault were sold: 1245
"scrubbed oak" fetched £605 in 1721 and 2075 "dotard oak" fetched £1194 in
1725 (46). At 10d a cubic foot this would imply about 11 and 14 cu.ft per tree.
Further sales were of £670 worth of timber and bark in 1726 (the expenses
included "Ye Bark Feast") (25) and of £1000 worth of "dotard and decayed
Trees" etc. in 1731 (46).
The next survey, of 1783, is given in Table 8. At that time there appears to
have been more timber in Hainault than ever before or since. The timber trees
were slightly more numerous and much larger than in 1604; but they still
amounted to only four trees per acre, and were an insignificant part of the total
timber in England. In 1794 460 loads — about 340 of the big oaks — were
43