There was, of course, nothing literally new, even in the year 1079, about the stretch of timberland, oak, ash and thorn, patched with open spaces of bog and heath, between the Solent, Southampton Water and the Avon. William the Conquerer only called it "New Forest" because it was connected with a new idea of his. Seeing how the farms of Hampshire, unrolling like green quilts, were slowly pushing away the woods, he set New Forest aside as a place for trees to grow and noblemen to hunt. For a long time any rogue caught...
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