Category: Nature Study

The Reverend John Jeremiah Daniell, in his book The History Of Warminster, first published in 1879, noted:

Among the ancient forests of Britain, none was of much greater extent than the Forest of Selwood, called expressly COTT MAUR, or the Great Wood. Contracted as it was, century after century, yet Leland writes, temp. Henry VIII,

“The Forest of Selwood, as it is now, is a 30 miles in compace, and streatchith one way almost unto Warminster, and another way unto the quarters of Shaftesburie, by estimacion a 10 miles.”

It extended westward far into Somerset, then passed in a easterly direction round Chapmanslade to Westbury, skirted the foot of the Downs north and east of Warminster, and enclosing Black-Dog, Norridge, Longleat, Southleigh, and Eastleigh woods, reached its southern limit at Pensilwood [Pen Selwood], near Mere. Here were formerly to be seen, distinctly traceable, though now much overgrown with copse-wood, hundreds of hollows and excavated pits, covering an area of six or seven hundred acres, which with fair reason may be believed to be, as those at Hisomleigh, on the northern edge of the Forest, near Thoulston, and others more recently discovered and carefully examined, near Salisbury, subterranean habitations of the old Celtic tribes.

The woods above-named were no doubt a part of Selwood Forest. One portion is frequently mentioned in old deeds as “Warminster Wood.” A perambulation of the Forests of our Lord the King was made 28 Edward I, whereby it was ascertained that all the bailiwick of Selwood, which was in the county of Wilts was appropriated to the Forest after the coronation of King Henry, great grandfather of the then King, except the wood of Heghtreborn, and the wood of WERMYNSTRE, and the wood of Westbury, which were in the Forest. The office of Forester of Selwood remained with the Crown till Charles I empowered a Commission to disforest Selwood and disperse the deer, with reservation, as royalties, of one third of the woods, while another third was assigned to the Lords of the adjacent Manors, and another to those Commoners, who by ancient prescription, had acquired right of depasturing cattle on the open heaths of the Forest.

But the old country families, settled in or near the Forest, seem from ancient time to have exercisedthe privilege of hunting deer within its limits; and therefore when Sir John Thynne enclosed a large area for a deer park, and laid restrictions on the chase of deer, (although apparently some compromise had been offered for a supply of venison), on one occasion, in September, 1580, the principal gentlemen of the two counties into which Sir J. Thynne’s newly-granted lands extended, including Mr. Popham, the Queen’s Attorney, Sir Amyas Paulett, Sir Gen. Rogers, with representatives of the families of Wadham, Coles, Sydenham, Willoughby, Hopton, Horner, Leversedge, Colthurst, Smith, Daniell, Wynter, Chamberlayne, Gisborne, Player, and others, nearly a hundred in number, with forty dogs, entered the Park mounted, and proceeded to hunt. Hugh Stowe, the Head Keeper, boldly protested against the invasion of his master’s property, but, threatened by one of the chief hunters with personal assault, – “he told me,” writes Stowe to his master who was absent, – “that I should run the risk of his dogs if I durst deny him; that Somersetshire or elsewhere should be too hot for me, and that he would cuff me, or would cause who should do it;” and powerless to resist so formidable a body, the chase went on, and three bucks were killed.

The trees of Selwood were all Oak or Beech. The Elm is supposed not to be indigenous to Britain. But it has been remarked that this noble tree has gained for itself and its numerous congeners such a settlement in this country, that but for the plough and scythe, almost every valley and lowland of Wilts would become in fifty years as dense a forest as any that ever covered this Island.