44 History of the English Landed Interest. 



parts. If, however, any of these were cut for mounds, fencing, 

 ploughbote, or for fuel of the owner within the parish in 

 which they grew, they were not titheable except in so far 

 as the vicar could claim his tithe wood. Saving in the case 

 of prescription, all underwood grubbed up by the roots was 

 not titheable ; and in some parts of the country, where the 

 beech, hornbeam, maple, aspen, and hazel came under the 

 same category as universally recognised timber trees (like the 

 oak, ash, and elm), tithe was payable until they had exceeded a 

 growth of twenty years. The preconceived notion that tithe 

 was due from nothing unless it had an annual growth was 

 dispelled by a Parliament convened at Sarum, which enforced 

 the tithe charge on all silva csedua before it became timber, 

 including even willow, alder, beech, maple, etc. Custom, how- 

 ever, varied in different parts of the same county ; thus, for 

 example, though in the "wild" of Sussex tithewood was not 

 paid for faggots, it was on the downs (alwa3^s provided there 

 was any which Evelyn thought doubtful). Beech in certain 

 districts, though not accounted as timber, was exempted; and 

 cherry-trees in Buckinghamshire, though adjudged to be 

 timber, were also free. A tree lopped under twenty years' 

 growth was titheable ; but if again lopped at any time after 

 that period, no tithe was due. The owner of a fruit tree who 

 had paid tithe of its produce to the parson was not a second 

 time chargeable if he the same year converted its wood into 

 fuel. Where the parson received .tithe for hops he could not 

 claim it on wood cut down for hop poles, and any superfluous 

 wood intended for hedges but unused was also exempt. Lastly, 

 though tithe was payable on all kinds of trees in a plantation 

 of mixed timber and underwood, yet if a wood consisted for 

 the most part of timber trees, with some small scatterings of 

 underwood, the latter was free. The tithe-owner was paid 

 either by receiving every tenth cord or tenth acre of wood 

 in a coppice, and in the sale of mast the tenth penny was 

 held to be his legal due.^ 



Resuming our narrative, we find that the choice of Charles 

 fell upon Evelyn, who responded to his sovereign's wish by 

 ' For autliorities, v'uU Evelyn's Bijlva, Bk. III. ch. vi. pp. 291, 292. 



