THE ENGLISH FORESTER 317 



accompanied by a sharper line of division between his depart- 

 ment and the land steward or agent, and we find the work 

 done about this time was done better and on a larger scale 

 than at any subsequent period. One reason for this was 

 probably the cheapness of labour, combined with the liberal 

 spirit in which the cost of these improvements was met. 

 Money was plentiful, and proprietors who carried out im- 

 provements of a more or less novel nature attached more 

 importance to the successful termination of the work than the 

 cost of doing it. Plans were drawn up and executed about 

 that time on a scale which subsequent proprietors have found 

 a great deal too large for the rental of the estate to carry on, 

 and it is nothing unusual to come across a great deal of work 

 then done now fallen into irreparable decay. 



From about 1800 to 1860, or thereabouts, the position of 

 the English forester on large estates reached its culminating 

 point of prosperity. His social position had been gradually 

 improving for two or three generations ; proprietors took a 

 keen interest in their woods, and were quick to note ability, 

 and reward it accordingly ; and agents were practical men, 

 and knew the difference between spending and wasting 

 money, and left the forester to do his work pretty much as 

 he liked. The majority of the woods were also in a fairly 

 profitable condition, for the plantations formed in the previous 

 century were beginning to mature, and able to furnish sale- 

 able timber in large quantities ; and this made the forester's 

 department a satisfactory feature in connection with estate 

 accounts, and the necessary expenditure was not so grudgingly 

 sanctioned, as is often the case when returns are small. There 

 is little doubt, that the foresters of this period were more 

 or less extravagant in their ideas, and that money was spent 

 in various branches of wood-work which the resulting crop 

 of timber could not pay for, especially on wet and heavy 

 grounds. Keference has been made to this in Chapter I., and 

 in many other directions it is evident that money has been 

 spent more lavishly than wisely at any rate, on many large 

 estates in the hands of wealthy proprietors. When bad 

 times came, the reaction which set in was consequently the 

 more marked, and a spirit of economy (or what was regarded 

 as economy) succeeded the previous system of unlimited 



