THE WOOD HOME 5 



advantage where the underwood is thick and grow- 

 ing high. In ten or fourteen years' growth, under- 

 wood of hazel and ash and oak stems mingled will 

 rise into something like a solid wall, which shuts 

 out what otherwise might be half a mile of view. 

 I often hear this urged against the monotony of 

 thick underwood among the oak trees, and it is a 

 fair objection from the point of view of artist or of 

 landscape gardener. Try to make many pictures 

 of these deep, thick underwood scenes, and the thing 

 is evident at once. A little broken plantation of 

 large trees, with only brake fern and rough grasses 

 and flowers for undergrowth, will yield more pictures 

 than a great wood such as I write of. Large, solid, 

 deep underwoods cannot be got on to the canvas 

 with much success. Think of the New Forest as 

 a forest of thick underwoods throughout, and its 

 picture and landscape effects largely disappear: a 

 thousand acres of the Forest then would not yield 

 as many pictures as a single acre in many parts of 

 it, say at Sway or Minstead, yields to-day. Under- 

 woods, too, hinder the full spread and growth of 

 timber, as timber lessens the crop of underwood. 

 The noblest oaks in the New Forest, as the 

 Knightwood Oak in Mark Ash, are free of under- 

 woods. 



It is the same everywhere. Great trees, having 

 a great hunger and thirst, will not brook little 

 rivals ; they need all the good of the soil and 



