470 OUR FORESTS AND WOODLANDS 
ously be planted up have been met by some with 
the objection that it would be vain to clothe wild 
tracts with forest where no trees are growing. 
This idea rests on a total misconception of past 
historical facts. Waste lands were originally 
under wood, and waste meant the felling or 
cutting down of any woods which grow scatter- 
ing, or any thick covert in the forest, without 
the license of the Forest Court. Chalmers, in 
his Caledonia, 1807 (vol. i. page 791), tells how 
‘every district of Caledonia, as the name implies, 
was anciently covered with woods. The many 
mosses of Scotland were once so many woods ; 
as we may learn from the number of trees, which 
are constantly dug from the forests, that have 
lain for ages below the surface. During the 
twelfth and thirteenth centuries not only the 
kings, but the bishops, the barons, and abbots 
had their forests in every district of North 
Britain, in which they reared infinite herds of 
cattle, horses, and swine. It will*scarcely be 
credited that many bleak moors, which now dis- 
figure the face of the country, were formerly 
clothed with woods, that furnished useful timber 
and excellent pasturage; yet is the fact clearly 
