2 



A DISCOURSE 



INTROD. has not been the late increase of shipping alone, the multiplication of 

 glass-works, iron-furnaces, and the like, from whence this impolitic di- 

 minution of our timber lias proceeded ; but from the disproportionate 

 spreading of tillage, caused through that prodigious havock made by such 

 as lately professing tliemselves against root and branch, (either to be re- 

 imbursed their holy purchases, or for some other sordid respect,) were 

 tempted not only to fell and cut down, but utterly to extirpate, demolish, 

 and raze, as it were, all those many goodly woods and forests, which our 

 more prudent ancestors left standing for the ornament and service of their 

 country. And this devastation is now become so epidemical, that unless 

 some favourable expedient offer itself, and a way be seriously and speedily 

 resolved upon, for a future store, one of the most glorious and consider- 

 able bulwarks of this nation will, within a short time, be totally wanting 

 to it \ 



* In order to trace the history of the decay of our forest-trees, it will be necessary to 

 remark, that the first attack made upon them, of any material consequence, was in the 27th 

 year of the reign of Henry VIII, when that monarch seized upon the church-lands, and 

 converted them, together with their woods, to his own use. Ruinous as such an attempt 

 might appear at first, it did not bring with it any very pernicious consequences, as the 

 whole kingdom, at that early period, was plentifully stocked with all kinds of timber-trees, 

 especially the Oak. During the Civil War, which broke out in 16'42, and all the time of 

 the Inter-regnum, the Royal Forests, as well as the Woods of the Nobility and Gentry, 

 suffered a great calamity ; insomuch that many extensive forests had, in a few years, hardly 

 any memorial left of their existence but their names. From that period to the present, 

 there is some reason to apprehend that the persons appointed to the superintendence of 

 the Royal Forests and Chases have not strictly and diligently attended to their charge, 

 otherwise the nation would not at this day have reason to complain of the want of Oak, for 

 the purposes of increasing and repairing the Royal Navy. This loss, however, would not 

 have operated so severely, had the principal Nobihty and Gentry been as solicitous to 

 plant, as to cut down their woods. But this reflection should be made with some degree of 

 limitation, as several thousand acres of waste land have, within these twenty years, been 

 planted for the benefit of the rising generation. The Society of Arts, &c. established in 

 London in the year 1754, have greatly contributed, by their honorary and pecuniary pre- 

 miums, to restore the spirit for Planting ; and I flatter myself, that a republication of Mr. 

 Evelyn's Silva will also contribute to that most desirable end. Tusser, a versifier in the 

 reign of Henry the Eighth, complains, at that early period, « that men were more studious 

 to cut down than to plant trees :" And as this author is often quoted by Mr. Evelyn, it will 

 be proper to remark that his book is entitled Five hundred Points of Husbandry, and is printed 

 in black letter. It is written in quatrains, or stanzas, of four verses each, and con tarns 



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