( 29 ) 



It's fources failed, as the demand increafed. 

 In moft commodities the demands of a market 

 immediately produce a fupply ; but timber 

 requires ages to make it marketable. It may 

 be added, that the navy-magazines had not 

 then thofe refources, which they have Unce 

 found. Timber was with difficulty brought 

 frpm the inland parts of the country, on 

 account of the badnefs of the roads — little 

 foreign timber was imported — and what ren- 

 dered the evil more confpicuous, in Charles's 

 time, the nation was on the eve of a naval 

 war. Such preffing neceffity urged flrongly 

 the propriety of making provifion for a future 

 fupply. Charles, who had a fort of turn 

 for fhip-building, and had on that account, 

 a kind of affection for the navy, was eafily 

 induced to iflue an order, under his lign 

 manual, to lir John Norton, woodward of 

 New-foreft, to inclofe three hundred acres 

 of wafte, as a nurfery for young oak * -, the 

 expence of which was to be defrayed by the 

 fale of decayed wood. This order bears date 

 december 13th, 1669. 



* Mr. Samber's MS. 



But 



