>> Nothing similar to the great forests of ancient Britain appears on any
>> map of Sartar I've seen. That difference alone would create a population
>>several times the RW one.
>
>The "great forests of ancient Britain" were gone before the Romans arrived,
>cleared by agriculure to make downlands and so on, so this is hardly
>surprising.
>
>Remember, the "New Forest" was deliberately planted because of a shortage
>of trees and hunting area! I can't now remember who by, but since William
>Rufus was killed there, it must have been Domeday sort of period.
Yes I think it was set aside by William I, however forest is being used with a different meaning here - "unenclosed royal hunting ground" rather than "large wooded area". The tree planting is probably a bit of a myth because you wouldn't get much mature woodland in the 34 years between the conquest and William II's death.
Certainly Sherwood Forest covered a large area a century later and there were still large areas of forest to support the shipbuiding industry of the 17th, 18th and early 19th Centuries.
>> I'd much rather find a time when there was recognisable overpopulation
>> for a similar mix of land types and use that as a basis. Particularly
>> as the only complete set of figures I'm aware of from that time is the
>> Doomsday Book which only covers England
>
>Confused: are you saying that at the time of the Domesday Book, England
>was at maximum population or even over-population? Not that I have
>enough knowledge to say that you're wrong, but I'm surprised.
Sorry, I was making two separate points, probably should have been in separate paragraphs.
The first is that we should be looking for a time when there was overpopulation.
The second is that the only complete set of figures I'm aware of is the Doomsday Book which doesn't cover Scotland or Wales so can't be used as evidence for Britain as a whole. I suspect England was well below maximum population at the time with a couple of invasions and then suppressing various revolts.
(I suppose I'd better add a note for foreigners here - Britain correctly refers to England, Scotland and Wales)
-- Donald Oddy http://www.grove.demon.co.uk/
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