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 816 1 0 ,, Blakeney.
Hill
---- -- --
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 809 2 4 ,, Coleford.
Hill
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, t