expofed to mifchief on every fide, and con- 

 tinually running rifks, which delicate mothers 

 would tremble at : yet befriended by a gracious 

 proteclor, they get forward in life, and attain 

 maturity, like the wildings of the foreft, in 

 a manner, which they who fpeculate only 

 on human means, cannot eafily conceive, 



In planting the foreft, fome again have 

 been advocates for uniting the two modes I 

 have fpecified. The ground is inclofed, but 

 not grubbed, and the acorns fown at random. 

 The late duke of Bedford, when he was 

 lord warden, was very intent on raifing 

 timber in this fortuitous manner. He merely 

 inclofed and left it to chance to fill his 

 inclofures. But I do not find that any of 



them have fucceeded. If the ground were 



inclofed, and a fpot here and there, grubbed, 

 In which two or three acorns were fown j 

 and fome little care taken afterwards of the 

 infant-wood, it might be of all others, per- 

 haps, the moft certain, and the leaft expenfive 

 way of raifing timber. 



But the woods of the foreft have not alone 

 been the objects of devaftation; it's lands 



alfo 



