4 ENGLISH ESTATE FORESTRY 



ground, again, may have had its growth of birch, and 

 possibly Scots fir, although the latter tree appears to have 

 become extinct in the southern counties until reintroduced 

 within recent times. 



The marsh or swamp land was mostly represented in the 

 eastern counties, Somersetshire, etc., and the mouths of 

 rivers generally. Here, too, alders, willows, etc., invested it 

 with a certain degree of forest character, and a great deal has 

 only been reclaimed within recent times. The remaining 

 class of land, woodland, occupied, as we have seen, fully half 

 or more of the country, the remains of which exist down to 

 the present day. 



The condition of these primeval forests was probably 

 much the same in Britain in prehistoric times, as may 

 be found in thinly inhabited forest districts in other parts of 

 the world. Composed of the indigenous species already 

 enumerated, their existence depended entirely upon natural 

 regeneration, such as may be seen to-day whenever a piece of 

 waste land exists within a short distance of surrounding trees 

 or woods. Their natural enemies, in addition to man himself, 

 would principally be deer, wild cattle, hares, etc., and constant 

 warfare between the animal and vegetable world would be 

 carried on. The character of the soil would decide whether 

 the forest growth would consist of tall or large oak or ash, 

 with holly or yew beneath, stunted and crooked scrub of 

 the same species, or birch, alder, willow, and other moisture- 

 loving trees. In sheltered valleys with good deep soil and 

 natural drainage, numerous oaks and other timber trees 

 would attain large dimensions, and, where favourably situated, 

 a great height, but there would be little of that regularity 

 characteristic of planted or artificially managed woods. 

 Wherever a favourable seed-bed existed, or a gap occurred in 

 the leaf canopy by the fall of an old tree, a dense crop 

 of seedlings would make its appearance from time to time. 

 If not interfered with by deer or ground game, or shaded 

 by overhanging branches, these patches would develop into 

 clumps, in which the struggle for existence or self-thinuino- 

 would constantly be going on. The final result would be a 

 few tall clean trees in the centre, and the edges of the clump 

 composed of stunted and leaning trees — pushed outward in 



