ANCIENT AND MODERN FORESTRY 77 



requisites, he had the additional qualification of 

 being a most devoted and loyal courtier, dis- 

 tinguished by his protestations of loyalty even 

 at a time when the general tone of the de- 

 monstration and expression of this was what 

 would now be considered sycophantic in the 

 extreme. Bringing a vast store of enthusiasm, 

 a graceful style, and what was in those times 

 termed a * pretty wit ' to the genial task, Evelyn 

 on 1 5th October 1662 read to the Royal Society 

 his Syha ; or, a Discourse of Forest Trees, and 

 the Propagation of 'Timber in His Majestic* s Do- 

 minions. Ordered by the Society to be printed, 

 this charming work, the great classic of British 

 Forestry, went through no less than five editions 

 by 1729, nine editions by 1812, and two since. 

 In these days of depression in the value of 

 landed estate, of death duties, of rating of wood- 

 lands, of other burdens that have fallen heavily on 

 land, and lastly, of often excessive preservation 

 of ground game, Evelyn might have been speak- 

 ing but yesterday when, in his preface ' to the 

 Reader/ he says that his treatise 'is only for 

 the Encouragement of an Industry , and worthy 

 Labour, too much in our days neglected, as haply 



