200 ADDRESS BY THE PRESIDENT, NOVEMBER 4, 1874. 



a system of dainage, the soil, like the sky, was, in general, charged 

 with humidity; its natural condition was unfavourable for common 

 roads, and the transportation of so heavy a material as coal by land, 

 from the remote counties where alone it was mined in the Middle 

 Ages, was costly and difficult. For all these reasons, the consump- 

 tion of wood was large, and apprehensions of the exhaustion of the 

 forests were excited at an early period. Many authors of the 

 sixteenth century express fears of serious evils from the wasteful 

 economy of the people in this respect." Harrison, in his curious 

 chapter "Of Woods and Marishes," date 1550 a.d., in Holinshed's 

 compilation, complains of the rapid decrease of the forests, and 

 adds: — " Howbeit this much I dare affirme, that if woods go so fast 

 to decaie in the next hundred year of Grace, as they have doone 

 and are like to doo in this, ... it is to be feared that the fennie 

 bote, broome, turfe, gall, heath, firze, brakes, whinnes, ling, dies, 

 hassacks, flags, straw, sedge, reed, rush, and also sea cole, will be 

 good merchandize even in the citie of London, whereunto some of 

 them euen now haue gotten readie passage, and taken vp their innes 

 in the greatest merchants' parlours. ... I would wish that I might 

 live no longer than to see foure things in this land reformed, that 

 is: the want of discipline in the church; the couetous dealing of 

 most of our merchants in the preferment of the commodities of 

 other countries, and hindrance of their owne: the holding of faires 

 and markets vpon the sundaie to be abolished and referred to the 

 wednesdaies: and that evrie man, in whatsoeuer part of the cham- 

 paine soile enjoieth fortie acres of land, and upwards, after that 

 rate, either by free deed, copie hold, or fee farme, might plant one 

 acre of wood, or sowe the same with oke mast, hasell, beech, and 

 sufficient prouision be made that it may be cherished and kept. 

 But I feare me that I should then liue too long, and so long, 

 that I should either be wearie of the world, or the world of me." 

 (Holimshed, reprint of, 1607. L pp. 357. 358.) It is evident from 

 this passage, and from another in p. 397, that though sea coal was 

 largely exported to the Continent, it had not yet come into general 

 use in England. " It is a question of much interest when coal was 

 first employed in England for fuel. I can find no evidence that it 

 was used as a combustible until more than a century after the 

 Xorman Conquest (1150 a.d.). It has been said that it was known 

 to the Anglo-Saxon population, but I am acquainted with no passage 

 in the literature of that people which proves this. . . . Coal is 

 not mentioned in King Alfred's Bede, in Glanville, or in Robert of 



