42 History of the English Landed Interest. 



had classed as weeds all willows, sallows, osiers, etc., coming 

 under tlie generic term of " subbois," was repealed ; and by 

 22 Ed. IV. c. 7, the liberty to turn cattle into the forest, or 

 purlieu, always jealously watched by the agisters, was not 

 granted untii the young trees had reached the age of seven 

 3'^ears. 



But even then woods were regarded rather in the light of an 

 encumbrance than in that of a profit ; for it has been truly said 

 that planting as an occupation, belongs to an advanced period 

 of society, and as an amusement, to a refined one. But it was 

 soon to become a necessity, because, at the Dissolution of the 

 Monasteries, the new landlords who came into possession of the 

 confiscated manors set the axe at work among their oak groves 

 to such an alarming extent that, as Holinshed tells us, the 

 markets became glutted, and even the jerry- builders gave up 

 using the commoner woods and constructed their roof princi- 

 pals, flooring joists, and boarding work out of solid oak. The 

 planting, securing, cutting, and ordering of woods, coppices, 

 and underwoods is at once brought under the control of the 

 State lawyers, as evidenced by such Acts as- 35 Hen. VIII. c. 17, 

 13 Eliz. c. 25, 23 Eliz. c. 5, etc. By 35 Hen. VIII. c. 17, " for the 

 necessary relief of the whole commonalty," his Highness decreed 

 with the assent of his lords spiritual, etc., etc., that to every acre 

 of coppice containing wood under twenty-four years' growth, 

 there should be left, at the period of felling, twelve " standils 

 or storers " of oak ; and in order to protect the " springs " after 

 the fallage, the coppices containing timber under fourteen 

 years' growth were to be fenced off for two years from year- 

 ling colts and calves, and for four years from all other cattle ; 

 if containing timber above fourteen years and below twenty- 

 four years, for six years. By 13 Eliz. c. 25, § 18, the two periods 

 — viz., two years in the case of yearling colts and calves, and 

 four years in that of other cattle — were extended to four and 

 six years respectively. By 1 Eliz. c. 15 timber of trees one 

 foot square at the bole was in many localities, such as within 

 twenty-two miles of London, within fourteen miles of the sea, 

 and in the vicinity of the great navigable rivers, not to be 

 felled for iron-smelting uses. By 1 and 2 Ph, & j\i. c. 6, 



