74 OUR FORESTS AND WOODLANDS 



This virtual repeal of the stringent forest 

 laws and abolition of the forest courts again 

 gave an immense impetus to clearance of wood- 

 lands. Besides large conversions into arable and 

 pasture land, great tracts were denuded of timber 

 and allowed to sink into the unprofitable con- 

 dition of barren moorland and waste heaths. 

 At this same time, too, great stretches of wood- 

 land and forest in Scotland were destroyed by 

 fire under the orders of General Monk, who 

 commanded Cromwell's army during the Scot- 

 tish invasion. Traces of such destruction are 

 still to be found in the charred pine stems found 

 in many bogs and morasses that have taken the 

 place of the ancient forests. 



The woodlands rapidly diminished everywhere, 

 either being cleared for husbandry or destroyed 

 by fire. Even in the far north the great ancient 

 forest of Caledonia, covering a vast tract of 

 country throughout the central area north of 

 the Forth and Clyde, with pine on the hills and 

 oak and other broad-leaved trees in the valleys 

 and along the water-courses, became, to a great 

 extent, destroyed and split up into compara- 

 tively small woods here and there ; and these 



