m 



xviii EVELYN'S " SYLVA " AND PRESENT TIMES 



is, in this learned author's opinion, infinitely more 

 to be valued than a man brought up either in wrangling 

 at the Bar, or the noisy and ridiculous disputes of our 

 schools, etc. To this sense the learned Modena. 

 And it is remarkable, that after all that Wise Solomon 

 had said, ' that all was vanity and vexation of spirit,' 

 among so many particulars he reckons up, he should 

 be altogether silent, and say nothing concerning 

 Husbandry ; as, doubtless, considering it the most 

 useful, innocent, and laudable employment of our life, 

 requiring those, who cultivate the ground, to live in 

 the country, remote from city-luxury, and the tempta- 

 tion to the vices he condemns." 



Thus Evelyn, to the *' Noble Persons and Gentle- 

 men," as he styles thdm, of his time. 



That he aroused the interest he set himself to cap- 

 ture, the successful results, recorded by Dr. Hunter a 

 century later, amply show. Their descendants, how- 

 ever, strayed lamentably from the path so ably indi- 

 cated by Evelyn. 



Nations have changed since the Sylva was written. 

 The responsibility of maintaining a proper proportion 

 of woods, managed on commercial lines, commensurate 

 with the requirements of the population can no longer 

 be entirely placed upon the shoulders of private pro- 

 prietors. It has become the State's business, but the 

 nation as a whole is responsible that the State fulfils 

 this obligation, a most solemn obhgation, to its 

 posterity. 



A hundred years of security from the danger of 

 invasion. With a few brilliant exceptions, a total lack 

 of interest, on the part of the State and proprietor 

 alike, in planting, or the maintenance in the country 



