AMONG THE PINES AND FIRS 201 
Darbishire, Shropshire, Andernesse, and a mosse 
neere Manchester, not far from Leicesters house : 
although that in time past not only all Lancaster- 
shire, but a great part of the coast betweene 
Chester and the Solwe were well stored.’ At a 
later date much attention was given to the culti- 
vation of Scots pine in many parts of England, 
both for its bold beauty as a woodland tree and 
for its value as a timber producer. In the New 
Forest, where pine is not indigenous, it was first 
introduced by the plantation of Ocknell Clump 
in 1776. After this it was largely planted on 
the poor sandy soils throughout several of the 
southern counties. But such plantations were 
sometimes loudly condemned. ‘As to the first 
of these, the Scotch Fir,’ Cobbett’s opinion was 
that ‘everybody in England knows too much 
about it, seeing that it now covers hundreds of 
thousands of acres that might have been covered 
by some valuable Pine, or by some other tree.’ 
Without considering this opinion critically, 
it may be safely asserted that at the present 
moment conifers, and the Scots pine by no means 
least of these, are almost as well deserving of 
attention as any other kinds of trees we have. 
