TREE-PLANTING 109 



at the same time note how slow-o-rowins; is the oak 

 tree by a reference to Cobbett's Rural Rides, where, 

 in 1821, he notes their being planted: 'I perceive 

 that they are planting oaks on the " tvastes," as the 

 Agriculturasses call them, about Hartley Roiv ; 

 which is very good, because the herbage, after the 

 first year, is rather increased than diminished by the 

 operation ; while, in time, the oaks arrive at a timber 

 state, and add to the beauty and the ix'al wealth of 

 the country, and to the real and solid wealth of the 

 descendants of the planter who, in every such case, 

 merits unequivocal praise, because he plants for his 

 children's children. The planter here is Lady 

 Mildmay, who is, it seems, Lady of the Manors 

 about here.' 



This planting was accomplished in days before 

 any one so much as dreamt of the time to come, when 

 the navies of the world should be built like tin 

 kettles. Oaks were then planted with a view to 

 being eventually worked up into the ' wooden walls 

 of Old England,' among other uses, and the squires 

 who laid out money on the work were animated by 

 the glow of self-satisfaction that warms the breasts of 

 those who can combine patriotism with the pro- 

 vision of a safe deferred investment. L^nhappily, 

 the ' wooden walls ' have long since become a dim 

 memory before these trees have attained their proper 

 timber stage, and now stand, to those who read these 

 facts, as monuments to blighted hopes. But they 

 render this common extremely beautiful, and give it 

 a character all its own. All this is quite apart from 

 the legal aspect of the case ; whether, that is to say, 



