SYLVA 253 



i o. But what shall we say then of our late prodi- 

 gious spoilers, whose furious devastation of so many 

 goodly woods and forests, have bequeath'd an infamy 

 on their names and memories not quickly to be for- 

 gotten ! I mean our unhappy usurpers, and injurious 

 sequestrators ; not here to mention the deplorable 

 necessities of a gallant and loyal gentry, who for their 

 compositions were (many of them) compelled to add 

 yet to this wast, by an inhumane and unparallel'd 

 tyranny over them, to preserve the poor remainder of 

 their fortunes, and to find them bread. 



Nor was it here they desisted, when, after the fate 

 of that once beautiful grove under Greenwich-Castle, 

 (of late supply'd by his present Majesty) the Royal 

 walk of elms in St. James's Park, 



That living gallery of aged trees, 



was once propos'd to the late Council of State (as they 

 called it) to be cut down and sold, that with the rest 

 of his Majesty's houses already demolished, and mark- 

 ed out for destruction, his trees might likewise un- 

 dergo the same destiny, and no footsteps of monarchy 

 remain unviolated. 



17. It is from hence you may culculate what were 

 the designs of those excellent reformers, and the care 

 these great states-men took for the preservation of 

 their country, when being parties in the booty them- 

 selves, they gave way to so dishonourable and impoli- 

 tic a wast of that material, which being left entire, 

 or husbanded with discretion, had proved the best 

 support and defence of it. But this (say they) was 

 the effect of war, and in the height of our contentions. 

 No, it was a late and cold deliberation, and long after 

 all had been subdued to them ; nor could the most 



