HISTORY OF Ilia FOREST OF EXMOOR.
History of the Forest of Exmoor. By Edward T. MaeDermott (Barnicott and Pearce, Taunton. 21s. net.)—The story of Exmoor is of both general and archaeological interest. It raises the subject of ancient royal forests and their origin, and in this particular case it is most instructive to follow the incessant struggles that took place over tithes and common rights when the wild game had ceased to attract hunting monarchs. The greatest battle of all was over tho tithes of the commons adjacent to the Forest. James Boevy, the first non-royal owner of Exmoor Forest, claimed the tithes of the adjacent commons on the ground that they were extra-parochial. He was eventually defeated, says Mr. MacDermott, or in later days we should have found the tithe-owners of the Forest taking tithes from the commons. The actual judgment given in 1679 in the decrees of the Court of Exchequer has dis- appeared with other records of that period. Exmoor was finally disafforested in 1819. The then Sir Thomas Acland having applied for a new lease,the Crown came to the conclusion that the Forest had no value, even for growing naval timber, and so it was enclosed and divided into 296 allotments, many of these being merely the life leases of tenants. The Crown had an allotment of more than 10,000 acres, and this was put up to the highest bidder. The whole acreage of the moor or parish—it is no longer legally a forest—is rather more than 20,000 acres. In one sense, then, the glory of Exmoor has departed. Mr. MaeDermott has written a careful and exhaustive history—though even he admits that the origin of the "free suitors" is lost in the mists of antiquity—and has seen all the extant records of the old Forest, and we may add that the bulk of the material in this volume is published for the first time. He gives us several maps of the Forest and its owners at different periods, and has left no stone unturned to give a complete history of what for more than a thousand Years was Exmoor Forest. Practically, then, there is nothing more to be said, and this must be considered the history, for no other writer has compiled a continuous history. Lovers of the famous moor now know where they can obtain their facts.
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