310 A DISCOURSE 



BOOK III. Hall to acquaint him what pity it was to cut down such young and thri- 

 ''-^'y^^ ving trees, Mr. Crane was persuaded to allow the said Thomas Wastney 

 fourscore pounds to let them stand ; since which time, the said Mr. 

 Crane sold as many of those trees and saplings as came to about forty 

 pounds, and left growing, and remaining on the ground, about thirteen 

 hundred and eighty trees ; which, in August 1675, being (upon the de- 

 sire of Mr. Crane) valued by the said Daniel Hall, were estimated to be 

 worth 700/. himself since offering for some of the said trees forty or 

 fifty shillings a tree ; five hundred of them being better worth than 

 500/. Now the said Latimer- Wood, were it cleared of the timber, 

 would not be let for above four or five shillings per acre at the most. 

 The particulars of this history I received under the hands and certifi- 

 cates of the above-mentioned Daniel Hall, who is the timber-merchant, 

 and two of the stubbers or labourers, yet living, that were employed to 

 clear the ground. I have likewise transmitted to me the following ac- 

 count from Mr. Sharp, under the hand of Robert Daye, Esq. one of 

 his majesty's justices of the peace for the county of Norfolk. 



There were, in 1636, an hundred timber-trees of Oak, growing on 

 some grounds belonging then to Thomas Daye, of Scopleton,in the county 

 of Norfolk, Esq. which were that year sold to one Robert Bowgeon, of 

 Hingham, in the said county, for 100/. which price was believed to be 

 equal, if not to surmount their intrinsic worth and value; but, after agree- 

 ment made for them, a refusal happening, (which continued the trees 

 standing till the year 1671,) those very trees were sold to Thomas Ellys,of 

 Windham, timber-master, and one Henry Morley, carpenter, by Mr. 

 Daye, (son of the said Thomas Daye. Esq.) for 560/. And this comes to 

 me attested under the hand of Mr. Daye himself, dated JNIay 4, 1678 p. 



From the same Mr. Sharp I received this instance of an Ash planted 

 by the hands of one Mr. Edm. Slater, in that county, which he sold for 

 40#. before his death ; but this is frequent. 



I am likewise assured that three acres of barren land, sown with acorns 

 about sixty years since, are now become a very thriving wood : the im- 



P A few years ago, fifty Oak-trees growing in the park at Nostell, the seat of Sir Row- 

 land Winn, Bart, were sold for 25001. 



