Cutting Beech Woods. 
387 
showed to my satisfaction that at least during the possession of Sir Geoi'ge 
and earlier, the beech woods were managed and cut substantially in accor- 
dance with the course of management above stated. Every wood was not 
cut in each year, but the woods were cut in rotation. The wood cut by Sir 
George and his predecessor was regularly sold by them for profit. The 
sales were held annually, and the wood was bought by the chair-makers for 
the purposes of their trade. The "West Wycombe estate is situate in 
the centre of this industry, which extends generally to the Chiltern Hills 
district. Thus the cuttings in the West Wycombe woods had a close con- 
nection with the chair-making industry, and were themselves carried on as a 
species of trade. The trees cut, though of upwards of twenty years’ growth, 
were in the language of the district called “ poles.” The chair-makers do 
not require very old trees for the purposes of their business ; the trees cut 
were of an age and size most serviceable to the chair-makers. 
Now, in point of law, an agricultural custom, or custom of husbandry, 
whether relating to the cultivation of the land, or regulating the rights and 
liabilities of landlord and tenant, in the absence of agreement, need not be an 
immemorial custom. For instance, it was recently held by the House of 
Lords that a custom for the tenant to take away flints turned up in the 
course of good husbandry, and to sell them for his own profit, was good, not- 
withstanding a reservation of mines and minerals, although the custom had 
grown up within the last thirty or forty years. Indeed, it would be absurd 
to carry back customs of this class to the reign of Richard I. Common 
usage in the neighbourhood is sufficient. It was, I think, established by 
the defendants that in regard to beech woods a usage had prevailed com- 
monly in the neighbourhood, for a long period of time, of dealing with them 
substantially in the manner which I have already described ; and also in 
regard to the West Wycombe estate itself, of so dealing with them for a 
period of at least sixty-four years before Lady D;ishwood came into pos- 
session. 
True it is that the title to the woods in the district was not shown — 
whether, for instance, the possessor was tenant in fee simple or tenant for 
life, impeachable or not impeachable for waste ; nor was it sho^vn whether 
Sir George’s predecessor was tenant in fee simple or for life, with or without 
impeachment for waste ; nor was any evidence given of disputes between 
landlord and tenant, or of any question having been raised between them 
and settled or adjusted in accordance with the alleged custom. The practice 
in modern times of excepting the woods from an ordinary lease renders it 
almost impracticable to adduce evidence of this kind. The evidence given 
was only of a general character ; it certainly established this proposition — 
that whatever were their rights, whether as tenants in fee simple or for 
some lesser estate, the landowners in general in the neighbourhood treated 
the produce of their woods as income and not as capital. If, however, the 
West Wycombe estate is what has been called a “ timber estate,” the usage 
or custom of the neighbourhood or the district is immaterial. The evidence 
was ample to prove the practice on the estate itself. In the circumstances 
above stated the defendants, the e.xecutors, contend that the West Wycombe 
estate, so far as regards the beech woods, is “ a timber estate,” and that the 
profits of the periodical cuttings belong to the tenant for life, and that such 
cuttings are not waste. They rely on the following passnge in a judgment 
of the late Sir George Jessel : “ Once arrive at the fact of what is timber, 
the tenant for life impeachable for waste cannot cut it down. That I take 
to be the clear law with one single exception, which has been established 
principally by modern authorities in favour of the owners of timber estates, 
that is, estates which are cultivated merely for the produce of saleable timber, 
and where the timber is cut periodically. The reason of the distinction is 
