CHAP, vi SYLVA 155 



Lord contracts with the buyer, that he shall at the 

 distance of every twenty foot (which is somewhat 

 near) leave a good, fair, sound and fruitful oak 

 standing. Those of 'twixt forty and fifty years they 

 reckon for the best, and then they are to fence these 

 trees from all sorts of beasts, and injuries, for a 

 competent time ; which being done at the season, 

 down fall the acorns, which (with the autumnal 

 rains beaten into the earth) take root, and in a 

 short time furnish all the wood again, where they 

 let them grow for four or five years, and then 

 grub up some of them for fuel, or transplantations, 

 and leave the most probable of them to continue for 

 timber. 



17. The French King permits none of his oak 

 woods, tho belonging (some of them) to Monsieur 

 (his royal brother) in appenage, to be cut down ; till 

 his own surveyers and officers have first marked them 

 out ; nor are any fell'd beyond such a circuit : Then 

 are they sufficiently fenc'd by him who buys ; and no 

 cattle whatsoever suffered to be put in, till the very 

 seedlings (which spring up of the acorns) are perfectly 

 out of danger. But these, and many other wholsome 

 ordinances, especially, as they concern the Forest of 

 Dean, we have comprized in the late Statute of the 

 twentieth of his Majesty's reign, which I find 

 enacted five years after the first edition of this 

 Treatise : And these laws are worthy our perusal ; as 

 also the Statute prescribing a scheme of proportions 

 for the several scantlings of building timber (besides 

 what we have already touched, Chap. IV. Book III. 

 &c.) which you have 19 Car. II. entituled, An Act 

 for the re-building of London ; to which I refer the 

 reader. 



