ENGLISH FORESTRY IN THE PAST 5 



the struggle for light, heavily branched on one side, and 

 destitute of leading shoots. With the presence of game or 

 other animals, various contingencies would arise to interfere 

 with the normal development of the group. Browsing, 

 beheading, and barking may convert the promising sapling 

 into a gnarled and stunted bush, a many-forked stem, or a 

 bush-headed tree. Seedlings springing up amidst a patch of 

 thorns, hollies, or brambles, would have a better chance of 

 escaping injury than those on bare or grassy ground, and the 

 single tree or small group, with the protecting bush at its 

 base, would be the result. Every form and size of tree, 

 every conceivable combination of stem and bush, would 

 be represented in one place or another, separated by grassy 

 glades or patches of weeds, bracken, or other growth 

 characteristic of forest soil. 



It is impossible to estimate the influence of prehistoric 

 man on the forests of Britain. The Druids are usually 

 associated with our earliest ideas of the ancient Briton and 

 his religion, and it is recorded that Malmud, supposed to be 

 the founder of Malmesbury, about 400 B.C. formed a code of 

 laws in which forest preservation was referred to. This 

 reference states that it was within the right of every man to 

 cut firewood from a dead tree, thus implying that living 

 trees were protected even at that time. 



There can be little doubt but that the earliest tribes did 

 something towards the subjection or destruction of the native 

 forests. The gigantic temples of Stonehenge and Avebury in 

 Wiltshire, with the barrows and tumuli scattered about over 

 the open downs which exist in other parts of the country, 

 suggest that the earliest settlements were on the more open 

 and thinly wooded tracts of country. These remains point 

 to a population of considerable size, and, although it chiefly 

 confined itself to the open country already referred to, it 

 depended a great deal for its food and clothing upon the 

 surrounding forest. Fuel and timber would be necessary 

 at all times, and although it is improbable that prehistoric 

 man was the means of reducing the natural forest area of 

 the country to any appreciable extent, it is not unreasonable 

 to infer that he was the means of thinning out and keeping 

 in check forest growth at a very early period. Gradually, 



