252 THE DEVELOPMENT OF BRITISH FORESTRY 



more closely than Britain, but the fact that the Indian 

 Forest Service was filled and recruited by Britishers 

 doubtless had an indirect influence on public opinion in 

 this country. Since about 1860, when Cleghorn and 

 Brandis inaugurated the Indian Forest Service, a small 

 stream of continental trained youths has been going out 

 to India, and an equally small stream of retired Indian 

 foresters, on furlough or pension, has been returning from 

 it. Whatever the exact practical results of this inter- 

 mixture of British and Anglo-Indian ideas may have been, 

 there is little doubt that fresh ideas were instilled into 

 British foresters and proprietors, and a wider knowledge 

 of forestry as an industry instead of a hobby resulted. 



The first indirect step towards public assistance to 

 British landowners was the establishment of a forestry 

 lectureship in Edinburgh University, which was ably 

 filled by Dr. Somerville in 1890-1891. This inaugurated 

 the system of forestry education which has gradually 

 extended into some dozen centres in Scotland, England, 

 and Wales, including the Universities of Oxford and 

 Cambridge. Combined with this instruction has been 

 the provision of cheap advice to landowners, a step which 

 is likely to lead to results which cannot be fully seen for 

 many years, and which will largely depend upon further 

 assistance and encouragement from the State. 



But another form of education, totally unconnected 



with the State, has also had a very great and probably 



lasting effect upon British forestry during the last fifty 



years. This consists in the constant visits made by the 



British landowning class to the Continent in search of 



pleasure, sport, or health. These visits, although totally 



unconnected with forestry, perhaps, can scarcely have failed 



to open the eyes of landowners to the possibilities of 



scientific forestry, and some of the seed thus sown will 



probably bear good fruit. Under the auspices of the 



