NURSERY AND PLANTING. 



49 



attended to. Professor iMartyn conjectures this circumstance 

 to have arisen from the general attack made on the forest- 

 trees in the twenty-seventh year of Henry the Eighth, when 

 that monarch dispersed the rehgious houses, and seized on the 

 church lands ; for after this time, we find the consumption of 

 oak timber to have greatly increased, not only in consequence 

 of the extension of commerce, but of the great additions 

 to the royal navy, and the more general adoption of that 

 timber in the building of houses, &c. For as Holinshead, who 

 lived in the succeeding reign, observes, " in times past, men 

 even were contented to live in houses built of sallow, willow, 

 &c., so that the use of oak was in a manner dedicated wholly 

 unto churches, religious houses, princes' palaces, navigation, 

 &c., but now nothing but oak is any where regarded." 



The publication of Evelyn's Sylva may be considered the 

 grand impetus which exhibited a spirit for planting in this 

 country, and the establishment of forest-tree nurseries which 

 followed (during the seventeenth century), as a matter of, 

 course facilitated its progress, the most antient of which, it 

 may be observed, was that of Corbett, at Twickenham, and 

 that of Loudon and Wise, at Brompton Park, which is still so 

 respectably kept up. Individuals about this period saw the 

 advantage of planting, and, breaking through the trammels 

 of ignorance and sloth, commenced planting timber-trees, 

 many of which still exist as monuments sacred to their me- 

 mory. Before the establishment of nurseries, as above stated, 

 such trees as were planted were procured from the natm-al 

 forests and woods, and were those which accidentally sprang 

 from seed. 



The encouragements held forth by the Society of Arts, which 

 was established about the middle of the eighteenth century, 

 contributed in a very important degree to promote a spirit 

 for planting and the improvement of landed property. This, 

 planting became fashionable, and being noticed and jiatronized 

 by the gi-eat, soon made rapid strides in improvement. The 

 appearance of the Sylva, edited by Dr. Hunter, became a 

 second stimulus ; and the examples and precepts of Kennedy, 

 Young, Marshall, and Pontey, as authors and practical men, 

 together with the encouragement from such men as the Dukea 



