THE FOREST IN ENGLAND. 
221 
The damp and cold climate of England requires the main¬ 
tenance of household fires through a large part of the year. 
Contrivances for economizing fuel were of later introduction 
in that country than on the Continent. The soil, like the sky, 
was, in general, charged with humidity; its natural condition 
was unfavorable for common roads, and the transportation of 
so heavy a material as coal, by land, from the remote counties 
where alone it was mined in the Middle Ages, was costly and 
difficult. For all these reasons, the consumption of wood was 
large, and apprehensions of the exhaustion of the forests were 
excited at an early period. Legislation there, as elsewhere, 
proved ineffectual to protect them, and many authors of the 
sixteenth century express fears of serious evils from the waste¬ 
ful economy of the people in this respect. Harrison, in his 
curious chapter “ Of Woods and Marishes ” in Iiolinshed’s 
compilation, complains of the rapid decrease of the forests, and 
adds : u Howbeit thus much I dare affirme, that if woods go 
so fast to decaie in the next hundred yeere of Grace, as they 
haue doone and are like to doo in this, * * * it is to 
be feared that the fennie bote, broome, turfe, gall, heath, firze, 
brakes, whinnes, ling, dies, hassacks, flags, straw, sedge, reed, 
rush, and also seacole, will be good merchandize euen in the 
citie of London, whereunto some of them euen now haue gotten 
readie passage, and taken vp their innes in the greatest mer¬ 
chants’ parlours. * * * I would wish that I might liue no 
longer than to see foure things in this land reformed, that is : 
the want of discipline in the church : the couetous dealing of 
most of our merchants in the preferment of the commodities 
of other countries, and hinderance of their owne : the holding 
of faires and markets vpon the sundaie to be abolished and 
referred to the wednesdaies: and that euerie man, in whatso- 
euer part of the champaine soile enioieth fortie acres of land, 
and vpwards, after that rate, either by free deed, copie hold, 
or fee farme, might plant one acre of wood, or sowe the same 
with oke mast, hasell, beech, and sufficient prouision be made 
that it may be cherished and kept. But I feare me that I 
should then liue too long, and so long, that I should either be 
