New Forest
2 of the 7 encyclopedias on this shelf carry an entry for New Forest. Both are reproduced below, so you can see where they agree and where they differ.
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
a triangular district of southwest Hampshire, England, 9 miles S. W. of Southampton, bounded W. by the river Avon, S. by the Solent and English channel, and N. E. by Southampton Water. It measures about 14 by 16 miles, and has an extreme area of 144 square miles, or 92,365 acres, of which, however, only 64,232 belong to the crown. The district seems to have been wooded from the earliest times; its present name dates from 1079, when the Conqueror here made a "mickle deerfrith," and cleared away several hamlets. This afforestation, enforced by the savage "Forest laws," was regarded as an act of the greatest cruelty; and the violent deaths met by two of his sons, Richard and William Rufus, of whom one was killed here by a stag, and the other by an arrow, were looked on as a special judgment. The deer were removed under an act of Parliament (1851); and under another of 1877 the
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
a public pleasure ground on the English channel , twenty minutes southwest of Southampton. It has an area of about 144 square miles. It was laid out in 1079 by William the Conqueror as a game preserve. He destroyed a number of hamlets and drove out many poor inhabitants. Peasants caught hunting in the forest were fortunate if they got off with mere scourging or loss of their ears. Two of the Conqueror's sons, William Rufus and Richard, were killed accidentally while hunting in the forest. The people regarded their death as a providential punishment for his cruelty. The old oak and beech forest has largely disappeared. Deer have not been kept since 1851. See Forestry