THE OAK. 



67 



origin can be traced. It took the denomination 

 of New Forest, from its being an addition to the 

 many forests ^Yhich the CroAvn abeady possessed, 

 and which had formerly been appropriated in feu- 

 dal times."* Its soil being peculiarly adapted to 

 the growth of Oak, it has been for centuries con- 

 sidered one of the great magazines for the Navy. 

 Its resources were formerly considered inexhaus- 

 tible, and enormous quantities of timber were 

 taken away, but no care was taken to ensure a 

 future supply by planting. Thus, in Charles the 

 Second's time, the nation, being on the eve of a 

 war with the Dutch, began to find themselves at 

 a loss to supply the urgent demand for building 

 materials. In 1664, Evelyn, at the request of the 

 Royal Society, wrote his Sylva^ in which he en- 

 forces the necessity of some extensive system of 

 planting forest-trees. The result was, that in 1669 

 the first royal mandate was issued for enclosing 

 and planting a portion of the New Forest as a 

 nursery for young Oaks ; in consequence of 

 which," says Hunter, the spirit for planting 

 increased to a high degree ; and there is reason 

 to beheve that many of our ships, which, in the 

 last war, gave laws to the whole world, were con- 

 structed from Oaks planted at that time," In the 

 reign of King William the Third, an act was 

 passed empowering certain commissioners to en- 

 close two thousand acres in the New Forest for 

 the growth of timber, and two hundred more 

 every year for the space of twenty years after- 

 wards. Equally active measures have been 

 adopted in the present century, so that the New- 

 Forest bids fair to outlive the injudicious attacks 



* Gilpin. 



