Gutting Beech Woods. 
385 
Edwin Dashwood (who was the principal plaintiff in the action) for 
life ; and the will contained several ulterior devises which it is 
unnecessary to state. The will empowered Lady Dashwood, with 
the consent of the trustees, to fell timber (not being ornamental) 
for the purposes of repair, but it contained no provision that she 
should not be “ impeachable for waste,” and she was, in fact, so 
impeachable. Lady Dashwood took possession of the estate in 1862, 
and held it till her death in 1889. Sir George had no issue, and 
consequently, on Lady Dashwood’s death, the estate passed under 
the terms of the will to the plaintiff. Sir Edwin Dashwood (his 
father having predeceased Lady Dashwood), who thereupon became, 
and is now, tenant for life of the estate. And he brought the action 
against the executors of Lady Dashwood to make her estate liable 
for timber, especially beech, which he alleged she had improperly 
cut. The action was heard in the first instance by Mr. Justice 
Chitty, who gave judgment for the defendants, that is to say, 
he decided that, although Lady Dashwood was impeachable for 
waste, yet she had the right to cut the timber and to sell it and 
keep the produce. In his very elaborate judgment, his Lordship is 
reported to have said, amongst other things, as follows : — ■ 
The argument for the plaintiffs was shortly this. Beech being timber 
by the custom of Buckinghamshire, it is waste for a tenant for life to cut it 
after it has reached the age of twenty years. When once it has reached 
that age it is timber and has all the incidents of timber. For the Defen- 
dants, the executors, it was admitted that beech was timber by the custom. 
But it was argued that there was a distinction between beech in the hedge- 
row, or the like, and beech in a beech wood. By their defence they alleged 
that in the county of Buckingham, and separatim in that part of the county 
where the West Wycombe estate is, and separatim in regard to the estate 
itself, there is a custom that all timber and timber-like trees in the beech 
woods are seasonable wood, and may be cut in a due course of management 
and at seasonable periods, and such cutting is not waste, and that the 
cutting complained of was a cutting in due course of management and at 
seasonable periods, and in accordance with the custom pleaded. For the 
plaintiffs it was contended that there was no such custom in fact, and that 
any such custom was bad in law as being repugnant to the general law 
relating to timber, and further that in any event the cutting was in excess 
of the alleged custom, and of what woidd be permitted by a due course of 
management. 
The plaintiffs, and the defendants, the executors, both gave evidence 
in chief as to the proper course of management of beech woods generally 
and in the district, and also as to the course of management in the estate 
before the death of Sir George Dashwood ; there was not much substantial 
difference between the witnesses on either side. The result, as I find the 
facts, is shortly as follows ; The object of a due course of management of 
beech woods is to produce a continual succession of trees. With this view 
the woods are gone through at periods varying from eight to fifteen years, 
to ascertain what trees ought to be felled. The periods vary according to 
the nature of the soil and position of each wood. Beech grows faster and 
better in the bottoms than on the hills, and faster and better on slopes 
facing to the north than to the south. Periodical thinnings are essential to 
the good condition of the woods. To pass them by would seriously injure 
the woods. Beech trees after they have reached a certain age, varying with 
