THE PINE. 23 



As is the case now with a ar^at part of Canada, 

 Norway, Sweden, the eastern shore of the Baltic, and 

 some considerable tracts of the Highlands of Scot- 

 land, it is probable that, in very early ages, great part 

 of Britain, with those islands towards the north, in 

 which there is now hardly a shrub of any kind, were 

 covered by pine forests. There has been much con- 

 troversy amongst the learned whether the pine was 

 indigenous to England. Caesar expressly says that 

 Britain had all the trees of Gaul, except the beech 

 and fir. It is remarkable, however, that our names 

 for the beech are derived from the Roman word 

 fasus ; but the fir has three names, which are purely 

 British — this would seem to justify the conclusion, that 

 the tree was not introduced by the Romans, but was 

 originally British*. The fir is perpetually discovered 

 in such of our mosses as were certainly prior to the 

 time of the Romans ; remains of the tree have been 

 found, not only on the sides of Roman roads, but 

 actually under them. But a more complete proof 

 of the ancient existence of pine forests in England 

 has been afforded by a minute examination of an ex- 

 tensive district called Hatfield Chase, in Yorkshire. 

 This curious subject was investigated with great 

 diligence by the Rev. A. DelaPryme, and the results 

 of his researches were communicated to the Royal 

 Society, in a paper pubhshed in their Transactions 

 for 1701. Of this paper the following is the sub- 

 stance ; and we have generally retained the author's 

 own expressions. 



The famous levels of Hatfield Chase were the 

 largest chase of red deer that King Charles the First 

 had in England, containing in all above 180,000 

 acres of land, about half of which was yearly drowned 

 by vast quantities of water. This being sold to one 



• Whitaker's History of Manchester. 



