We must not imagine that the Charta de Forestâ of Henry III. was entirely a series of new privileges. They were, with some notable exceptions, simply those rights which had been received from the earliest times in compensation for some of the hardships of the Forest Laws, and which had been wrested away, probably by Richard or John, but which had never been granted to those who dwelt outside the Forest. (On this point see especially “Ordinatio Foreste,” 33rd Edward I., _Statutes of the Realm_, vol. i. p. 144. And again, “Ordinatio Foreste,” 34th Edward I., sect. vi., same volume, p. 149, where the rights of pasturage are re-allowed to those who have lost it by the recent perambulation made in the twenty-ninth year of the King’s reign.) I think we may, therefore, gain from these clauses, especially when taken in conjunction with those of the Charta de Forestâ of Canute, a tolerably correct picture of an ancient forest—that it consisted not merely of large timber and thick underwood, a cover for deer, but of extensive plains,—still here preserved in the various _leys_—grazed over by cattle, with here and there cultivated spots, and homesteads inhabited by a poor, but industrious, population. [41]See chapter ix. p. 97, footnote. [42]See _Domesday_, as before, p. xxix. b., under Einforde. [43]See chapters viii. p. 87, and x. p. 114. [44]The following translation is made from the original in the Record Office. Southt Plitai Foreste, A^o viii.^o E. I.^mi “The metes and boundaries of the New Forest from the first time it was afforested. First, from Hudeburwe to Folkewell; thence to the Redechowe; thence to the Bredewelle; thence to Brodenok; thence to the Chertihowe; thence to the Brygge; thence to Burnford; thence to Kademannesforde; thence to Selney Water; thence to Orebrugge; thence to the Wade as the water runs; thence to the Eldeburwe; thence to Meche; thence to Redebrugge as the bank of the Terste runs; thence to Kalkesore as the sea runs; thence to the Hurste, along the sea-shore; thence to Christ Church Bridge as the sea flows; thence as the Avene extends, as far as the bridge of Forthingebrugge; thence as the Avene flows to Moletone; thence as the Avene flows to Northchardeford and Sechemle; and so in length by a ditch, which stretches to Herdeberwe.” It is this old natural boundary which, as stated in the preface, we have adopted for the limits of the book. A copy of the original may be found in the _Journals of the House of Commons_, vol. xliv., appendix, p. 574, 1789. [45]This may also be found, with the perambulation made in the twenty-second year of Charles II., in the _Journal of the House of Commons_, vol. xliv., appendix, pp. 574, 575, 1789. It is also given in Lewis’s _Historical Enquiries upon the New Forest_, appendix ii. pp. 174-177.