FORESTRY IN THE PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE. 1 47 



of the British Isles. We fear, however, that in this work the 

 reader will find neither an adequate nor a reliable guide. 



The first three chapters deal with the history of forestry in 

 three periods: the first to 1482 ; the second from 1482 to 1885 ; 

 and the third from 1885 to 19 14. Although for the adoption of 

 the first period there is the precedent of Dr Nisbet, it is quite 

 an arbitrary division, and derives, we suggest, from a confusion 

 of an English statute of very limited scope with a definite 

 economic change. However, we are not disposed to quarrel 

 with any division which may be convenient for purposes of 

 exposition, and we have much more serious fault to find with 

 Mr Stebbing's account of this period, which consists of an 

 inaccurate description of English forests and forest law. There 

 is no mention of Scotland, Ireland, and Wales, which have a 

 different history from England, and which were not subject to 

 English law. From the head of a Department of Forestry in a 

 Scottish university, we might reasonably expect some reference 

 to Scottish forest law and to the denudation of the forests of 

 Scotland in the Middle Ages, which so impressed visitors 

 to the country : did not one say : 



" And for ther trees, had Christ beene betrayed in this 

 countrey, as doubtles he should have beene had he come as a 

 straunger amongest them, Judas had sooner founde the grace 

 of Repentaunce then a tree to hang him selfe on "? ] 



The Scottish Government had indeed endeavoured to re- 

 plenish the woodlands, and under James II. an act was passed 

 with the object of requiring tenants to plant woods and trees. 

 This act anticipated by a quarter of a century the legislation 

 in England which is taken by Mr Stebbing as marking the 

 beginning of an era, and it would be valuable to have an 

 authentic account of the reasons for the disappearance of 

 Scottish forests which took place, certainly in the Lowlands, at 

 a far more rapid rate than in England. The omission of 

 reference to Ireland might, perhaps, be defended on the ground 

 that in his first chapter Mr Stebbing purports to deal only with 

 Great Britain : but the history of forests in Ireland is bound up 



1 In a tract ascribed to Sir Anthony Welldon, and said to have been 

 written on the occasion of James VI. 's visit to Scotland in 1617. The reader 

 who is unacquainted with the document may find it in Hume Brown's Early 

 Travellers in Scotland, pp. 96 seg., or in Hist. MSS. Commission: Report 

 on MSS. of Lord Middleton, pp. 184 seg. 



