THE ESSEX FIELD CLUB. 355 



France perira faute dc bois " was his saying, and a royal inspection of all the 

 Koyal and ecclesiastical forests was ordered. 



All common rights in these forests were incjuired into and re^jnlated, and such 

 as were incompatible with the maintenance of the forests were suppressed. No 

 sheep and ^oats were henceforth to graze in the Royal forests, some excejitions 

 beinji; made as a jirivilege, but not as a right, in the case of sheep. Up to this 

 time the fellings had been by selection, as at present with us in the Chiltern Hills 

 .beech forests. The best trees and those most conveniently situated for transport 

 ■were felled and the worst trees left, and portions of forest which were accessible 

 were ruined, and inaccessible parts of the forest left untouched. By a Royal 

 decree, which followed the inspection of the forests, each working section in a 

 forest was divided into as many felling-areas as there were years in the rotation. 

 The rotation was fixed at 120 or 150 years in oak and beech forest, so as to give 

 every advantage to the long-lived oaks. Fellings were to be henceforth made in 

 succession, only one felling-area in each working section being cleared in a year, 

 and these felling-areas were arranged as far as possible from east to west, so as to 

 protect the standards against the strong westerly gales. In each felling-area 

 eight, sometimes sixteen, standards were reserved per acre, to serve as mother 

 trees for restocking the ground, and no thinnings were to be made, but the 

 new growth on the felling-areas and the standards were left to mature 

 until another 120-150 years had passed. Doubtless by this exclusion 

 •of thinnings much harm was done to forests where beech prevailed — the beech 

 got the upper hand of the oak, and much smaller material died which might 

 have been utilised. But, on the other hand, the Royal foresters could not go 

 wherever they liked to select the finest trees for felling, but had to be content 

 with felling the trees in the felling areas provided for each particular year. This 

 system, known as T/r et Aire, preserved tiie French Royal forest as aense 

 masses of woodland with a few magnificent trees, up to 1830, when the present 

 more intelligant system was introduced. Under this system thinnings were made 

 whenever they were required, and the .State forest officers, being specially 

 trained for the work, were no longer tempted to make extensive thinnings in 

 •order to y ield a large temporary revenue, but worked the forests for a sustahied 

 yield of tine timber. Owing to the density of the French woodlands and to the 

 necessity for finding a passage for the Royal hunts, numerous roads and rides 

 Mere cut in the forests, which were pierced in all directions with a complete 

 network of export lines. 



The French ecclesiastical forests were also regulated by Colbert, and when, 

 during the French Revolution, all these forests became the property of the 

 State, they were found to be in splendid order, and the area of State forests was 

 largely increased. Ecclesiastical forests were similarly confiscated throughout 

 Germany and Austria after the French Revolution, and these, with the original 

 Royal forests, formed the great mass of forest lands then owned by nearly all 

 the European States. Our ecclesiastical lands, confiscated by Henry VIII.. were 

 conferred mostly on a number of greedy courtiers, and the same thing happened 

 to the ecclessiastical lands of Scotland. 



The Stuart kings did not seem to have had in Scotland any royal domain 

 worth mention, except a few castles. In Ireland, although vast estates were 

 confiscated by James Land by Cromwell, they were conferred on the City of 

 London and on Cromwell's colonels, so that there are scarcely any State lands in 

 Ii eland, and, though there were some in Wales, they are mostly heather waste 



