48 THE PRACTICAL GARDrNER. 



Europe. We arc informed by Evelyn, the celebrated author 

 of Sylva, that tlie connnanders of the Spanish Armada had 

 positive directions, that if, when Lmded, they shoukl not be 

 able to conquer this country, they were not to leave a tree 

 standing in the forest of Dean, thinking that, by destroying 

 that national forest, to weaken our maritime means of defence, 

 and render us an easier prey to a future invasion. Britain 

 has always been plentifully stocked with timber, and abounded, 

 till the time of the civil wars, with natural forests of great 

 extent ; for we learn, at the time of the compilation of Dooms- 

 day-Book, that timber was not valued by measurement or 

 quality; but the forests by the number of swine that could be 

 maintained on the acorns and mast which they produced. And 

 a writer in the time of Edward the Fourth, about four hun- 

 dred years after that period, says, that England was then a 

 well-timbered country. 



It does not ajipear that previously to the beginning of the 

 seventeenth century that })lanting was much attended to as 

 a matter of rural economy, although it is certain that, for 

 particular purposes, and in certain situations, a considerable 

 number of trees must Jiave been planted long before that period. 

 Between 15S8 and 1616, we meet with several authors on the 

 subject of planting, and the management of forest and copse- 

 woods ; and, as an anecdote connected with the horticuUural 

 literature of this country, we may be excused for the follow- 

 ing digression. 



In 1538, Benose published a work on timber and planting, 

 which was followed by another by Fitzherbcrt, in 1539; 

 and in 1(>07 appeared Sir John Norden's Surveyor's Dia- 

 logue. In 1612 was published, Of planting and preserving 

 of timber and fuel, an old thrift newly revived by R. C"; and 

 in 1613, the year following, that by Arthur Standish, entitled, 

 "Direction for planting timber and fire-wood." In Googe's 

 Husbandry of 1611, Planting for timber and copse is par- 

 ticularly noticed ; and Manwood's " Treatise on Forests, and 

 their original and beginning," appeared in 1615; and that of 

 Rathbone's Surveyor in 1616. At so early a period it is 

 something singular, says an intelligent writer, there should 

 appear so many works on a subject then so little generally 



