A HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



favourable to the protection of strong knees or 

 crooks of the greatest value in shipbuilding be- 

 fore the introduction of iron and steel for the 

 framework, and teak-wood for the planking of 

 vessels of all kinds. The outcome of this here- 

 ditary method of treating woodlands has been a 

 national system of arboriculture in which the 

 trees are allowed a much larger growing-space 

 than is necessary for the production of long 

 stems free from unnecessary branches, and from 

 any excessive development of the crown of 

 foliage ; and this hereditary custom also makes 

 itself apparent in a decided tendency to thin too 

 freely, even in the case of the plantations of oak, 

 ash, beech, larch, pine, etc., intended to be grown 

 as highwoods for the production of valuable 

 timber in different parts of the county. 



The copsewoods are often fairly well stocked 

 with trees, though the standards are usually very 

 irregular in age, through not having been stored 

 in proper proportion each time the underwood 

 was coppiced. The latter is also often very 

 sparse, owing chiefly to the protection now given 

 to rabbits as a favourite form of sport. This is, 

 however, quite a recent development, and the 

 woods would be in a much worse condition than 

 they now are if rabbits had been anything like 

 as plentiful in the woodlands a hundred years ago 

 as they are nowadays. New plantations cannot 

 possibly now be made without expensive rabbit- 

 proof wire-fencing, and this of itself costs more 

 per acre than the whole cost of planting used 

 to amoimt to from fifty to one hundred years 

 ago. 



But for the difficulty and expense thus caused 

 by rabbits, arboriculture might be made to pay 

 well in Northamptonshire. Along with Leices- 

 tershire, this county produces ash-timber of the 

 finest quality, and there has been such a dearth 

 of this for some years past that the Coach-builders' 

 Association in 1899 memorialized the President 

 of the Board of Agriculture to endeavour to pro- 

 mote the cultivation of this tree in the central 

 counties of England. 



We know from Arthur Standish's booklet^ that 

 planting of ash took place in Northamptonshire at 

 any rate as early as about the end of the sixteenth 

 century, because he tells us that ' I have seen 

 many Groves of Ashe that have been set, that 

 after many years have taken hold and grown so 

 thick. It pleased Sir IFalter Montague to shew 

 me a Grove of his house, within five miles of 

 Northampton, which hee had caused to bee set 

 not much thinner, in which grove hee had caused 

 some to be felled that liked not, foorth of which 

 rootes as were felled there were yong Ashes 

 sprung up of a yard and three-quarters high, of 

 one year's growth.' Standish's pamphlet, origi- 

 nally published in 16 13, was reprinted in 1615, 

 * authorised by the king's most excellent Majesty,' 

 and contained a proclamation ' By the King, To 

 all Noblemen and other our loving Subjects, to 

 whom it may appertaine.' In this the ' sevcrall 

 good projects for increasing of Woods' are recom- 

 mended to ' be willingly received and put in 

 practice,' in order to restore the decay of timber 

 'universally complained of within the realm. 

 This little book — a mere pamphlet in size — is of 

 great interest as being the precursor of Evelyn's 

 classic Si ha, or a Discourse of Forest Trees and the 

 Preparation of Timber in his Majesty's Dominions 

 (1662) about fifty years later. 



John Evelyn, writing of the ash in his Sy/va, 

 said, ' I have been credibly informed that one 

 person hath planted so much of this one sort of 

 Timber in his lifetime as hath been valued worth 

 fifty thousand pounds to be bought. These are 

 pretty encouragements for a small and pleasant 

 industry.' With the present dearth of ash in 

 England, and the strong demand for it at high 

 prices, the encouragement towards growing this 

 easily cultivated and valuable timber is greater 

 now than ever it has been previously ; and 

 Northants is one of the best counties for its 

 growth. Rabbits and profitable ash cultivation 

 are, however, quite incompatible, because no 

 other tree is so liable to be peeled and badly 

 damaged by these as the ash. 



1 Netv Directions of Experience for the Increasing of Timber and Firewood, 2nd edit. i6i5,p. 25. 



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