IRISH GARDENING 



117 



The troubles of 1688 and the succeeding changes 

 were also injurious to the woods. The Commis- 

 sioners of Forfeited Estates connnent severely on 

 the general waste conunitted bj- ihe grantees of 

 these i^roperties, instancing in particular the 

 woods round Killarney (where trees to the value of 

 £20,000 were cut down) and the Muskerry district 

 where the destruction was almost as great. (15) 

 This reckless dealing with the timber supply of 

 the country was continued for the best part of a 

 generation, and Swift asserted his belief " that 

 there is not anotlier example in Europe of such a 

 ])rodigious quantity of excellent timber cut down 

 in so short a time with so little advantage to the 

 country either in shipping or building." (16) This 



most diligent eiiquirers into the condition and re- 

 sources of Ireland who had ever visited this 

 country, the well-known Sir George Carew. 



Half a century after Carew's time, the Books of 

 Survey and Distribution, compiled in 1657, and now 

 preserved in the Eecord Office, show^ the dimen- 

 sions of the woodlands throughout the country as 

 ascertained at that date. The maps of the Down 

 Survey also indicate in a rough way the distribu- 

 tion of the woods, and a list of the iron works 

 through the country in the seventeenth century 

 would indicate as many places in which substan- 

 tial woods still existed at that period. 



It appears from these and other sources that at 

 about the close of the seventeenth century the 







^x 





CaMP.'VNULA velutina. 



process of rapid consumption of the anciently 

 abundant woods of Ireland continued far into the 

 eighteenth century, and, notwithstanding a succes- 

 sion of enactments designed to encourage planting 

 the woodland areas diminished so rapidly that, to 

 quote Arthur Young once more, " the greatest part 

 of the country continues to exhibit a naked, bleak, 

 dreary view for want of wood, wdiich has been de- 

 stroyed for a century past with the most thoughtless 

 prodigality, and still continues to be cut and wasted 

 as if it was not worth cultivation." (17) 



Although some maps of the time of Henry VIII. 

 are extant which indicate very roughly the wooded 

 districts, nothing approaching to a statistical re- 

 cord of the distribution of the woods of Ireland is 

 available for an earlier date than the 16th century. 

 Baron Finglas's rough list of passes, already re- 

 ferred to, is the earliest specific notice on the 

 subject. In Dymmok's " Treatise of Ireland " 

 (1599), the princ'inal forest districts are set out by 

 name. It is evident, however, that Dymmok de- 

 rived his information from the notes of one of the 



woods or forests of importance were distributed 

 roughly, thus : — 



1. In Leinster :— In the Counties of Wicklow, 



Wexford, Carlow and Kilkenny, and in the 

 great territories of Leix and Offaly, covering 

 the greater portion of Queen's and part of 

 King's County. 



2. In Ulster : — In the Counties of Tyrone, Lon- 



donderry, Antrim and Down, particularly on 

 the east and west shores of Lough Neagh, 

 and the territories adjacent. 



3. In Munster :— In Cork, Kerry and Limerick, 



the Southern borders of Tipperary and East 

 Waterford. 



4. In Connaught :— In the Barony of Tyrawley 



in Mayo, Eoscommon, North Sligo, and along 



the course of the Shannon. 

 It was obvious, however, that the rapid diminu- 

 tion of the w^oodland area during the seventeenth 

 century was not an absolutely uncompensated mis- 

 fortune. It was the natural consequence of that 

 social transformation w^hich necessarily followed 



