THE SOUTHERN COUNTIES. 213 



present the aspect of a well -wooded country; but the 

 trees are scattered among the hedgerows, in the parks, 

 and along the roads. They are not packed together, and, 

 with the exception of a few patches of coppice here and 

 there, do not undergo those regular cuttings which, with 

 all our eight millions of hectares of wood, make it with 

 us a rare sight to see a solitary tree. At the same time, 

 lands which are unfit for anything else are planted. The 

 art and taste for plantations are now widely extended in 

 England, and give promise to be a future great source of 

 wealth, on account of the variety and choice of the means 

 and the intelligence and care which are brought to bear 

 upon this as well as all other cultivation. 



It is the forest properly so called which the English 

 suppress ; that is to say, those large tracts abandoned to 

 natural wood, or where, perchance, wood may not grow 

 at all. Their object is, not to confound land fit for grow- 

 ing corn with those lands which are inferior and con- 

 demned to comparative sterility, simply because, in times 

 past, there happened to be a wood in that particular spot. 

 To grow corn on corn lands, and timber upon land not 

 suited for cultivation, and everywhere else to make use 

 of trees as shelter and screens, as well as for ornamental 

 purposes, to have, in fact, a sufficiency without having 

 too many of them, but to respect them and defend them 

 from the hatchet ; this is the system, and I think it a 

 good one. 



Strathfieldsaye, presented by the nation to the Duke 

 of Wellington, lies in the north of Hampshire. This, 

 again, is one of those stiff clay-soils so difficult to work. 

 The Duke laid out the whole rental upon improvements 

 of all kinds. He spent large sums in draining, marling, 

 and farm-offices, and to very little profit. Such an out- 

 lay upon a less rebellious soil should have given ten times 



