HOUSE-WARMING. 
269 
the houses and fences thus raised on the borders of the 
forest,” were “ considered as great nuisances by the old 
forest law, and were severely punished under the name 
of purprestures , as tending ad terrorem ferarum—ad 
nocumentum forestce, &c.,” to the frightening of the game 
and the detriment of the forest. But I was interested 
in the preservation of the venison and the vert more 
than the hunters or wood-choppers, and as much as 
though I had been the Lord Warden himself; and if 
any part was burned, though I burned it myself by acci¬ 
dent, I grieved with a grief that lasted longer and was 
more inconsolable than that of the proprietors; nay, I 
grieved when it was cut down by the proprietors them¬ 
selves. I would that our farmers when they cut down 
a forest felt some of that awe which the old Romans did 
when they came to thin, or let in the light to, a conse¬ 
crated grove, (lucurn conlucare,) that is, would believe 
that it is sacred to some god. The Roman made an 
expiatory offering, and prayed, Whatever god or god¬ 
dess thou art to whom this grove is sacred, be propitious 
to me, my family, and children, &c. 
It is remarkable what a value is still put upon wood 
even in this age and in this new country, a value more 
permanent and universal than that of gold. After all 
our discoveries and inventions no man will go by a pile 
of wood. It is as precious to us as it was to our Saxon 
and Norman ancestors. If they made their bows of it, 
we make our gun-stocks of it. Michaux, more than 
thirty years ago, says that the price of wood for fuel in 
New York and Philadelphia 66 nearly equals, and some¬ 
times exceeds, that of the best wood in Paris, though 
this immense capital annually requires more than three 
hundred thousand cords, and is surrounded to the dis- 
