198 THE FORESTS OF ENGLAITD. 



as such an attempt might appear at first, it did not bring 

 with it any very pernicious consequences, as the whole 

 kingdom, at that early period, was plentifully stocked with 

 all kinds of timber-trees, especially the oak. During the 

 civil war which broke out in 1642, and all the time of the 

 inter- reguum, the royal forests, as well as the woods of the 

 nobility and gentry, suffered a great calamity, insomuch 

 that many extensive forests had, in a few years, hardly 

 any memorial left of their existence but their names. 

 From that period to the present, there is some reason to ap- 

 prehend that the persons appointed to the superintendence 

 of the royal forests and chases have not strictly and dili- 

 gently attended to their charge, otherwise the nation would 

 not at this day have reason to complain of the want of oak 

 for the purposes of increasing and repairing the royal navy. 

 This loss, however, would not have operated so severely, 

 had the principal nobility and gentry been so solicitous to 

 plant as to cut down their woods. But this reflection 

 should be made with some degree of limitation, as several 

 thousand acres of waste land have, within these twenty 

 years, been planted for the benefit of the rising 

 generation. The Society of Arts, &c., established in 1754, 

 have greatly contributed, by their honorary and pecuniary 

 premiums, to restore the spirit for planting ; and I flatter 

 myself that a republicatiou of Mr. Evelyn's Sylva will also 

 contribute to that desirable end. Tuffer, a versifier in the 

 reign of Henry VIII.. complains at that early period, that 

 men were more studious to cut down than to plant trees ; 

 and as this author is often quoted by Mr Evelyn, it will 

 be proper to remark that his book is entitled Five Hundred 

 Points of Husbandry, and is printed in black letter. It 

 is written in quatrains, or stanzas, of four verses each, and 

 contains more lines than Virgil's Oeorgics. The first edi- 

 tion was published in 1.562. There are other editions in 

 1664 and 1672 ; also in 1710 and, 1743, with notes and 

 observations. Every thing that has a tendency towards 

 the raising and diffusing a spirit for planting, is highly 

 meritorious ; and as our wooden walls have been esteemed 



