THE ESSEX FIELD CLUB. 355
France perira faute de bois" was his saying, and a royal inspection of all the
Royal and ecclesiastical forests was ordered.
All common rights in these forests were inquired into and regulated, and such
:as were incompatible with the maintenance of the forests were suppressed. No
sheep and goats were henceforth to graze in the Royal forests, some exceptions
being made as a privilege, but not as a right, in the case of sheep. Up to this
time the fellings had been by selection, as at present with us in the Chiltern Hills
beech forests. The best trees and those most conveniently situated for transport
were felled and the worst trees left, and portions of forest which were accessible
were mined, and inaccessible parts of the forest left untouched. By a Royal
decree, which followed the inspection of the forests, each working section in a
forest was divided into as many felling-areas as there were years in the rotation.
The rotation was fixed at 120 or 150 years in oak and beech forest, so as to give
every advantage to the long-lived oaks. Fellings were to be henceforth made in
succession, only one felling-area in each working section being cleared in a year,
and these felling-areas were arranged as far as possible from east to west, so as to
protect the standards against the strong westerly gales. In each felling-area
eight, sometimes sixteen, standards were reserved per acre, to serve as mother
trees for restocking the ground, and no thinnings were to be made, but the
new growth on the felling-areas and the standards were left to mature
until another 120-150 years had passed. Doubtless by this exclusion
of thinnings much harm was done to forests where beech prevailed—the beech
got the upper hand of the oak, and much smaller material died which might
have been utilised. But, on the other hand, the Royal foresters could not go
wherever they liked to select the finest trees for felling, but had to be content
with felling the trees in the felling areas provided for each particular year. This
system, known as Tir et Aire, preserved the French Royal forest as dense
masses of woodland with a few magnificent trees, up to 1830, when the present
more intelligent system was introduced. Under this system thinnings were made
whenever they were required, and the State forest officers, being specially
trained for the work, were no longer tempted to make extensive thinnings in
order to yield a large temporary revenue, but worked the forests for a sustained
yield of fine timber. Owing to the density of the French woodlands and to the
necessity for finding a passage for the Royal hunts, numerous roads and rides
were cut in the forests, which were pierced in all directions with a complete
network of export lines.
The French ecclesiastical forests were also regulated by Colbert, and when,
during the French Revolution, all these forests became the property of the
State, they were found to be in splendid order, and the area of State forests was
largely increased. Ecclesiastical forests were similarly confiscated throughout
Germany and Austria after the French Revolution, and these, with the original
Royal forests, formed the great mass of forest lands then owned by nearly all
the European States. Our ecclesiastical lands, confiscated by Henry VIII., were
conferred mostly on a number of greedy courtiers, and the same thing happened
to the ecclesiastical lands of Scotland.
The Stuart kings did not seem to have had in Scotland any royal domain
worth mention, except a few castles. In Ireland, although vast estates were
confiscated by James I. and by Cromwell, they were conferred on the City of
London and on Cromwell's colonels, so that there are scarcely any State lands in
Ireland, and, though there were some in Wales, they are mostly heather waste