FORESTRY AND THE NEW FOREST 



the State Papers Domestic of 1 6 1 o : ' All the trees are of oak and some 

 small quantity of beech and ash. It is very requisite that the Coppices 

 so soon as they be felled be ditched and hedged round, and that no young 

 saplings be felled for hedge stakes nor any cattle suffered to come in 

 them.' 



Most of the remaining documents of this reign relate to the draft- 

 ing of the terms of leases for the letting of the various coppices ; and 

 these are framed obviously with the view of, in the first place, maintain- 

 ing and preserving the timber which was likely to serve for the purposes 

 of the navy, and secondly for the profit to be derived from the felling of 

 the coppices and the pollarding of such trees as were not fit for navy 

 timber. The provisions of these leases are too long to be quoted in full 

 here, but they are of great interest and show a thorough knowledge and 

 appreciation of the management of woodlands both for realizing income 

 in the present and for growing fine timber in the future. 



We also know that in 1613 Arthur Standish published a small book 

 or pamphlet of thirty-four pages entitled New Directions of Experience , . . 

 for the Increasing of Timber and Fire-wood. This pamphlet urged sowing 

 and planting ; and it met with so much approbation from James I. that a 

 second edition was issued in 1615, which included among the prefatory 

 matters a royal proclamation ' By the King, To all Noblemen, Gentle- 

 men, and other our loving Subjects, to whom it may appertaine.' In 

 this the ' severall good projects for the increasing of Woods ' were 

 recommended to ' be willingly received and put in practice,' in order 

 to restore the decay of timber ' universally complained of within the 

 realm. The aim and objects of this pamphlet are fully set forth in the 

 title-page of the second edition (1615), which runs thus : 



NEW DIRECTIONS OF EXPERIENCE AUTHORIZED BY THE King's 

 most excellent Majesty, as may appeare, for the increasing of Timber and Fire-wood, 

 with the least waste and losse of ground. WITH A NEARE ESTIMATION, what 

 millions of Acres the Kingdome doth containe ; what Acres is waste ground, 

 whereon little profit for this purpose will arise. Which waste being deducted, the 

 remaine is twenty-five millions ; forth of which millions, if two hundred and 

 forty thousand Acres be planted and preserved according to the directions following, 

 which is but the hundred part of the twenty-five millions, there may be as much 

 Timber raised, as will maintaine the Kingdome for all uses for ever. And how as 

 great store of Fire-wood may be raised, forth of hedges, as may plentifully maine- 

 taind the Kingdome for all purposes, without losse of ground ; so as within thirty 

 years all Spring-woods may be converted to Tillage and Pasture. By Arthur 

 Standish. Anno Domini MDCXV.' 



This interesting little work was the precursor of John Evelyn's celebrated 

 Sy/va, or a Discourse of Forest Trees and the Propagation of Timber in His 

 Majesty's Dominions, which, appearing in four editions between its first 

 publication in 1662 and the author's death in 1706, gave a great impulse 

 to planting both for ornament and for profit. Subsequent editions of the 

 latter by Dr. Hunter continued its influence down to the end of the 

 eighteenth and the beginning of the nineteenth centuries, when the 

 impulse in this direction became strengthened by Sir Walter Scott's 

 n 449 57 



