The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Volume 14
The Nature of Crown Land Property and Revenues
The Nature of Crown Land Property and Revenues.
Feb-farm Rents.—These are annual sums paid to the Crown for lands held in perpetuity. They cannot therefore be either increased or improved.
"And whereas the necessary expenses of supporting the Crown, or the greatest part of them, were formerly defrayed by a Land Revenue, which hath from time to time been impaired and diminished bv the grants of kings and queens of this realm, so that her Majesty's Land Revenues at present can afford very little towards the support of her Government. Nevertheless, from time to time upon . . . reversions and remainders . . . and by such lands ... as may hereafter descend, escheat, or otherwise accrue . . . the Land Revenues of the Crown . . . may hereafter be increased, and consequently the burden upon the estates of the subjects of this realm may be eased and lessened in all future provision to be made for the expenses of the civil government."
It may be noted, however, that although this very Act forbade the Sovereign to alienate any of the demised estates or other landed property, estates were (within twenty years afterwards) aliened of a yearly value of £17,306, besides reserved rents of £1,606 per annum.
Woods and Forests.—These revenues, according to Blackstone, originally arose from fines for offences against the Forest Laws, no court of which kind has sat for now 250 years. The annual sale of wood and bark in 1797 was £12,655, and the expense of management £18,192. Fifty years later things had but slightly improved, 114,521 acres of Royal forest yielding a net return of only £465, while in 1849 the principal official declared that there was a deficiency of £8,193. Steps taken by Parliament to institute reforms then led to a rapid improvement, and in 1861-2 (13 years later) there was a net revenue of £8,800.
Receipts. | Expenditure. | Net Income. | Cost per cent | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
£ | s. | d. | £ | s. | d. | £ | s. | d. | ||
Alice Holt Woods | 1,114 | 2 | 7 | 414 | 9 | 0 | 699 | 13 | 7 | 87.16 |
Bere Woods | 1,178 | 10 | 4 | 568 | 3 | 4 | 610 | 7 | 0 | 48.13 |
Dean Forest* | 7,313 | 13 | 4 | 4,596 | 12 | 3 | 2,717 | 1 | 1 | 62.84 |
Delamere Woods | 567 | 8 | 10 | 4,199 | 2 | 10 | ... | 740.56 | ||
Hazelborough Woods | 458 | 8 | 6 | 49 | 9 | 0 | 415 | 19 | 6 | 9.17 |
Highmeadow Woods | 2,455 | 3 | 3 | 1,856 | 2 | 4 | 599 | 0 | 11 | 34.86 |
New Forest | 10,311 | 0 | 3 | 7,823 | 5 | 10 | 2,487 | 6 | 5 | 75.87 |
Parkhurst Woods | 467 | 3 | 9 | 315 | 1 | 8 | 152 | 2 | 1 | 67.45 |
Salcey Wood | 500 | 5 | 4 | 837 | 16 | 7 | ... | 167.40 | ||
Windsor Park and Woods | 5,017 | 19 | 10 | 25,734 | 8 | 0 | ... | 512.87 | ||
Woolmer Estate | 709 | 14 | 0 | 88 | 6 | 4 | 621 | 7 | 8 | 12.41 |
£130,093 | 10 | 0 | £46,475 | 17 | 2 | £8,293 | 17 | 3 | 154.43 |
Delamere, Hazelborough, and Salcey Woods, which were included in the list of "Royal Forests and Woodlands," in the Report for 1876-6, as yielding £3,424 1s. 10d., and costing £1,596 16s. 5d., were omitted from the Report for 1877, as they are also from those for 1878, 1879, and 1880; but they seem to be still existent, for from other parts of the three Reports we find that the receipts from them in those four years were £5,634 17s. 1d., and the disbursements £11,635 16s. 6d.
* Exclusive of Mires.