The New Forest is one of the five forests mentioned in Domes day. It was a hunting-ground of the West Saxon kings, but derives its name from the afforestation schemes carried out by William I. in 1079. One of the chief sources of the wealth of the forest in early times was the herds of pigs fed there. The New Forest being under the forest laws, was affected by the forest clauses of Magna Carta and by the Forest Charter (1217), which mitigated their severity. The chief officer was the justice in eyre who held the justice seat, the highest forest court. The lower courts were the Swainmote and Wodemote, the former of which is still held, in a modified form, in the Verderers' Hall of the King's House at Lyndhurst. The circuit of the justices in eyre, or their deputies, continued down to 1635; they were virtually ended by the Act for the Limitation of Forests (164o), though Charles II. attempted to revive them, and they were not legally abolished until 1817. The lower officers of the forest, who held merely local appoint ments, were the verderers, the regarders, the foresters, the wood wards and the agisters. There was also a lord warden, who was
usually a nobleman and performed no judicial functions. The Deer Removal Act (1851) resulted in the almost total extinction of the forest deer. Under the act of 1877 the forest is admin istered as a national park. About one-fourth of the area is under cultivation by private owners and tenants, and the remainder is open woodland, bog and heath. The principal village within the forest is Lyndhurst (pop. [1921], 2,562), with the verderers' court, in charge of the Crown portion of the forest. On the western outskirts lies the town of Ringwood (q.v.). Beaulieu vil lage on the estuary of the Beaulieu river, has ruins of Beaulieu Abbey, founded by King John for Cistercians. The gatehouse is restored as a residence, and the Early English refectory as a church. There are considerable remains of the cloisters, chapter house and domestic buildings.