Ixvi INTRODUCTION 



for shipbuilding ever remained a question of very serious 

 national importance right down to the time when this press- 

 ure was removed by the introduction of steam communica- 

 tion and the use of Indian Teak and subsequently of iron for 

 purposes of construction. Then again, his position as a 

 courtier and a country gentleman, and as one of the most 

 prominent members of the recently established Royal Society, 

 gave him a much higher degree of prominence than such 

 adventitious aids would ensure in our present far more demo- 

 cratic days. Finally, he had no small confidence in his own 

 ability ('conceit ' his friend Mr. Samuel Pepys calls it in his 

 diary); and this has been recognised in the numerous editions 

 of Sylva that have from time to time been found worthy of 

 publication. 



Although by far the most celebrated of English writers on 

 Arboriculture, Evelyn was by no means the first who wrote 

 on this subject. That honour belongs to Master Fitzherbert, 

 whose Boke of Husbandrie was published in 1534. But it is 

 a curious fact that the most important previous contribution 

 towards the propagation of timber leaving Manwood's 

 Treatise of the Forrest Lawes (1598) out of consideration is 

 apparently never mentioned by Evelyn. This was a small 

 booklet of 34 pages, a mere pamphlet in size, published in 

 1613 by Arthur Standish and entitled New Directions of 

 Experience . . .for the Increasing of Timber and Firewood. In 

 this, Standish strongly urged sowing and planting on an 

 extensive scale ; and the pamphlet was so highly approved 

 by King James I., that in 1615 a second edition was issued. 

 This included, among the prefatory matters, a royal proclam- 

 amation c By the King, To all Noblemen, Gentlemen, and 

 other our loving Subjects, to whom it may appertaine, ' 

 which set forth the * severall good projects for the increasing 

 of Woods ' and recommended them to ' be willingly received 

 and put in practise ' with a view to restore the decay of 

 timber ' universally complained of within the realm. 



Although exhortations and royal proclamations had pre- 

 viously been issued more than once by James I. relative to 

 the ' storing ' of timber trees when falls were being made in 

 copsewoods, and generally to ensure better effect being given 

 to the intentions of Henry VIII's Statute of Woods of 1543, 



