14 FORESTRY IN EARLY TIMES 



rich and powerful for hunting and the chase ; the 

 poor to obtain from it certain necessaries of their 

 existence. And for these ends the forests were 

 maintained, even added to, as will be shown. 

 And in later days, when the forests had come to 

 assume a definite position in the economic life of 

 the European nations, our forefathers were not 

 behind the others. British forestry was as good as 

 anything the Continent could show. It studied the 

 requirements of the people and the nation, and 

 grew the timber crops and coppice crops to supply 

 the market demands of the period. And it grew 

 them in the best possible manner, as those responsible 

 for the upkeep of our old wooden Navy, which 

 depended upon them, were fully aware. It is only 

 during the last century and a half that we gradually 

 lost the forestry art of keeping pace with the times 

 and changes of markets. There were reasons for 

 the decadence of British forestry, as will be indicated, 

 but it has resulted in our present-day almost total 

 ignorance, as a nation, of forestry methods. 



Let us trace this history for a little. 



We will take it up at the time of the Roman 

 invasion of Britain. We know that in olden days 

 the British Isles were in all probability for the 

 most part covered with a great stretch of primeval 

 forest, the broad-leaved trees, such as the oak, beech, 

 ash, etc., in the plains and low hills, whilst the 

 Scots pine formed the chief species in the moun- 

 tainous tracts, this latter being our only indigenous 

 conifer. The axe, but more commonly fire, swept 

 away the great forests of the latter, leaving the 



