236 THE ESSEX NATURALIST.
by James and his successor. There was no respite during the
Commonwealth, though this was all the more needed because
of the wanton destruction of timber by the contending parties
in the Civil Wars. Immediately after the Restoration, alarmed
by the prospect of a want of timber for the Dockyards, the Navy
Board represented the situation to the Royal Society, requesting
them to suggest a remedy. John Evelyn was given the task,
and wrote his "Sylva : or a Discourse of Forest Trees, and the
"Propagation of Timber in His Majesties Dominions," 1664.4
This classical work was really an appeal to the landed nobility
and gentry to plant oaks to relieve "the impolitic diminution
of our timber "which had arisen in various ways—the increasing
demands of shipping, glass- and iron-works, disproportionate
spreading of tillage—which "tempted not only to fell and cut
"down, but utterly to extirpate, demolish and raze as it were,
"all those many goodly woods and forests, which our ancestors
"left standing for the ornament and service of their country."
The work had an immediate effect, though Evelyn's statement
in the preface to the third edition, 1679, and in his letters
that several million trees were planted as a result of his book
alone has been questioned. Here at last was an attempt to
remedy obvious evils and Evelyn's advice was followed not
only by private persons, but occasionally by the government.
The Navy Board's anxiety about the scarcity of timber was
due to new developments in naval warfare. The three Dutch
wars brought many problems to light. The first (1652-4)
showed no deficiencies in masts and timber, for the sequestration
of the estates of the Cavaliers, and the authorization of heavy
fellings by the Navy in several of the crown reserves, had provided
a liberal supply of oak. But the Dutch, like the French, fired
high and there was great destruction of masts. Then, as now,
much timber was imported from the Baltic, but little, except
great masts, had found its way into the naval dockyards : the
Harry Grace a Dieu built in 1514 had foreign masts, as had
several other warships during the Tudor period. The Dutch were
able to cut off the supply of Baltic timber together with other
naval stores. Attention was therefore directed towards New
4 "I this day delivered my ' Discourse concerning Forest-Trees' to the Society, upon occasion
of certain queries sent to us by the Commissioners of His Majesty's Navy, being the first book
that was printed by order of the Society, and by their printer, since it was a Corporation." Diary,
Sept. 15th, l662.