THE OAK. 



65 



tion^ squared, and sawn in lengths, as it some- 

 times continues long to lie about the forest, it 

 becomes an object of deformity; and we lament 

 what it once was, without receiving any equiva- 

 lent from its present state."* 



A due supply of timber for the use of the Navy 

 has long been a matter of consequence. In the 

 Report of the Commissioners of land-revenue re- 

 specting timber, which was printed by order of 

 the House of Commons in June 1812, it is stated 

 that it requires three thousand loads of timber 

 or two thousand well-grown Oak trees to build a 

 seventy-four-gun ship. If we allow forty such 

 trees to an acre, which is the highest number 

 possible, even supposing the ground to be co- 

 vered with trees all fit for naval purposes, the 

 produce of fifty acres during a century will be 

 required for a single seventy-four. For very 

 many years, therefore, the Royal Forests, origin- 

 ally set apart for the amusement of the chase, 

 have been jealously preserved as nurseries for 

 timber. Of these there are a great number scat- 

 tered throughout the various counties of England. 

 The majority, however, exist only in name, 

 having given way to the plough, to pasturage, to 

 ship -building, or to the iron-foundry. Of the 

 few which remain, the Forest of Dean, and the 

 New Forest, are most worthy of mention. The 

 first of these is in Gloucestershire, and has always 

 been a place of note. It is of large extent, being 

 not less than twenty miles in length, and half as 

 many in breadth ; and is separated from the rest 

 of the county by the river Severn. The tim- 

 ber of this having been formerly in great request 



* Gilpin's Forest Scenery, 



F 



