pasture history are irreversible. The Forest has never before been as it is now or
as — if the changes continue — it will become. Its "natural aspect" is a lime-
wood which it would be quite impracticable to recreate.
The changes have involved many losses and few gains. Besides the loss of
ecological amenities — of ground vegetation, heather, old and hollow trees —
there has been the erosion of historical features. The Conservators in 1878
inherited a complex and balanced system, every acre of which was the product
of centuries of peculiar land-uses; its stability had resisted many changes of the
social system that underlay it; it was a thing of distinction and beauty; with its
combination of pollards and heather, there was probably nothing quite like it in
the world. It is now a much less distinguished place; the considerable remains of
the social system have been, probably unnecessarily, swept away; it is rapidly
turning into a haphazard patchwork of maiden trees, the kind of secondary
woodland of which thousands of acres have sprung up on the heaths of Surrey
and (on a smaller scale) of Essex.
The framers of the 1878 Act foresaw with surprising clarity what needed to
be done to maintain the traditional state of the Forest. Had the Act been carried
out in a balanced way the Forest's historic condition would still be little im-
paired; external factors might have had their effects but — given the Forest's
ample manpower — they could have been resisted had the need been foreseen.
In the event, as is clear from their own writings and from the present state of the
Forest, the authorities observed their statutory duty of protecting timber trees
with more enthusiasm than their equal duties of protecting pollards, shrubs,
heather, and herbage. Above all, many historic features have been sacrificed in
the pursuit of a "natural aspect" which was always speculative and is now seen
to be an illusion. The "natural aspect" clause in the Act may at first have
protected the Forest from an even worse fate, but it has long outlived its
usefulness and should be reviewed while something yet remains of the historical
Forest.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I am grateful to Susan and Colin Ranson for help with the archives and
with the preparation of the manuscript. Some of the material was gathered
during my research on the woods of Eastern England, for which I acknowledge
the support of the Natural Environment Research Council and of Corpus Christi
College, Cambridge.
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