4cS2 



English Coppices and Copsewoods. 



ash generally forms the most valuable portion of a crop. 

 The standard trees are still chiefly of oak, some of them of 

 great age, and many of them have been left standing long 

 after they have attained their fall maturity as timber. Aye, 

 many of these picturesque, ancient trees have even been 

 allowed to stand until, to quote from Coleridge : — 



" Nought was green upon the oak, 

 But moss and rarest mistletoe." 



Such aged trees have usually little or no value as timber y 

 though as beautiful sylvan objects they are invaluable beyond 

 any mere monetary estimate. 



From the various causes already indicated, English 

 coppices and copsewoods are no longer as well stocked 

 or as well cared for as they seem once to have been. It 

 will seldom be found that either the overwood or the under- 

 wood is in the condition which, cceteris paribus, can render them 

 profitable. There has usually been little or no method adopted 

 in the storing of standards, and the underwood is often only 

 about half (or less than half] as thick as it might be. Patches 

 of bracken, clumps of holly, etc., have been not only allowed 

 to grow, but have even been encouraged, and shrubs like privet 

 and rhododendron have been planted all over the woods, in 

 order to make them better fitted for game coverts. If shoot- 

 ing form the main object for which the copses are now 

 intended, these are certainly steps in the right direction, and 

 more might easily be done towards this end ; but in that case 

 it is obviously an injustice to complain about woods being 

 unprofitable, when common-sense principles of management 

 are thrown aside to encourage rabbits, as well as less 

 injurious game, in place of trying to grow full and good crops 

 of wood. 



In ancient days, as is shown by the quotation from Evelyn,, 

 there was method in the storing and felling of the standards ; 

 and it was " a very ordinary copse" which did not yield at 

 each time of rotation, along with the underwood, three or four 

 firsts, fourteen seconds, twelve thirds, and eight wavers, the 

 statutory minimum of the young stores being twelve per acre. 

 The names of these last differed according to time and place 

 e.g , Standils,Storers, or Stores f Henry VIII, James I.) Stadles 



