ASltDOWN FOREST. 131 



c< Various attempts to plant the open forest have from 

 time to time been made by the owners of the soil, but 

 * hitherto they have been stoutly resisted by the com- 

 moners, and very wisely ; for planting meant simply the 

 temporary abstraction of so much of their open common, 

 with great risk of its permanent appropriation. They 

 were not indeed unreasonable in their opposition, but 

 allowed clumps to be left where they were obviously 

 planted for ornament, and not for profit ; and the conse- 

 quence is, that many of the long ridges are broken at 

 their highest points by knolls of beech or pine, imparting 

 that indescribable sense of solitude which is associated 

 with single trees or groups of trees in a wild open country. 

 Recently the ubiquitous Scotch fir has here and there 

 gained a footing on the moors, and with a little encour- 

 agement would doubtless soon over-run them. Fortun- 

 ately, its movements are carefully watched, for experi- 

 ence in the New Forest has shown how disastrously it 

 disfigures woodland scenery when grown in large masses, 

 while the consequences entailed upon the herbage have 

 been found to be equally ruinous. But in a soil which 

 once produced an oak and beech forest, some planting, 

 carried out with discretion, might doubtless be introduced 

 without incongruity or the destruction of the natural 

 features of the forest ; and it is to be hopod that by aid of 

 facilities offered by recent legislation, and under the guid- 

 ance of that love of open spaces as such, which has arisen 

 of late years, as one of the results of our crowding in towns, 

 and the hurry of our lives, some mode of protecting and 

 enhancing the beauty of the district, with due regard to all 

 legal rights, may be discovered. In the meantime, if a 

 tired and smoke-dried citizen wishes for a few days' 

 ramble in a wild, hilly, and open country, accompanied by 

 copious draughts of the freshest possible breezes, he cannot 

 do better than pay a visit to Ashdown Forest." 



