WOODLANDS, GAME, AND SPORT 295 



before the Parliamentary Forestry Committee in 

 1887. Among other witnesses the Earl of Mans- 

 field's head-forester described how hares and 

 rabbits barked elm, ash, and beech trees of 80 to 

 100 years of age in the Scone woods, standing 

 upon their hind-legs, and leaving no bark on the 

 stem up to a height of two feet above the ground. 

 There is not an estate in the country where the 

 productiveness of the woodlands can fail to be 

 injuriously affected if preservation and increase of 

 game, and particularly of ground game, is one of 

 the main objects desired by the landowner. And 

 there never has been an estate where a large head 

 of game did not mean damage to the woods and 

 coppices, particularly at the time of regeneration. 

 On the whole, however, plantations are more liable 

 to attack than self-sown seedlings or sowings. 



In the very earliest times, as the first two 

 chapters of this volume show, the woods and the 

 royal forests were mainly used for sport as well as 

 for providing timber and fuel. This strong love 

 of sport, and of country life and outdoor amuse- 

 ments generally, has ever been hereditary, and it 

 still constitutes one of the greatest attractions in 

 the possession of landed estates. Nay, there can 



