Ixviii INTRODUCTION 



a quite exceptionally keen pleasure to a man of his disposition. 

 In his preface, dated 5 December 1678, to the fourth edition 

 of Sylva, he writes in * The Epistle Dedicatory ' to the King 

 that * I need not acquaint your Majesty how many millions 

 of timber- trees, besides infinite others, have been propagated 

 and planted throughout your vast dominions, at the instigation, 

 and by the sole directions of this work ; because your gracious 

 Majesty had been pleased to own it publickly for my 

 encouragement, who in all that I here pretend to say, deliver 

 only those precepts which your Majesty has put in practise; 

 as having, like another Cyrus, by your own royal example, 

 exceeded all your predecessors in the plantations you have 

 made, beyond, I dare assert it, all the Monarchs of this nation, 

 since the conquest of it. ' 



Apart from the planting done in the royal woods and 

 forests, details of Evelyn's diary shew that he was frequently 

 called upon to give advice with regard to laying out private 

 plantations, as well as of ornamental gardens, on which 

 subject he was also considered one of the leading authorities 

 of the time. 



More than a century after Evelyn's death, during the 

 time of our wars with France, the demand for timber and 

 the serious outlook with regard to future supplies once more 

 drew marked attention to the propagation of timber throughout 

 Britain, and many plantations of oak were then made which 

 have not yet been entirely cleared to make way for other 

 and now more profitable crops of wood. A very decided 

 impetus was given in this direction by the re-publication of 

 the text of the fourth edition of Syfoa (as finally revised by 

 the author in 1678), with copious notes by Dr. A. Hunter 

 F.R.S. in 1 8 1 2. A most appreciative and favourable review 

 of this work is contained in the Quarterly Review for March 

 1813 (Vol. ix), which was of much assistance in drawing 

 the attention of our great landowners to the advantages of 

 growing timber. Plantations could then be made at about 

 one-fourth to one-third (and often less than that) of what it 

 now costs to make them, while the market for timber and 

 wood of all sorts was then favourable, with a steady demand 

 likely to increase as time rolled on and the national com- 

 merce and industries expanded, because in those days the 



