ITS MANAGEMENT
163
that such a thing as a real natural tree is hardly
to be found." He then adds : " It is very sur-
prising in such a wood as Loughton, where there
are more than a thousand acres of waste, and
perhaps a million of trees, to note how not a
single one escapes lopping. The visitor from
London, walking there in the summer-time, when
the lopping is not taking place, and there is
nothing to call the villagers into the wood, is
struck with the silence and the solitude ; but if
he begins to indulge any fancies about primeval
wastes unspoiled by man, a glance at the trees
will correct him. They are not, strictly speaking,
trees at all, but strange, fantastic vegetable
abortions. Their trunks, seldom more than a
foot or eighteen inches in diameter, are gnarled,
writhed, and contorted, and at about six feet
from the ground, just within reach of the axe,
they spread into huge overhanging crowns, from
which spring branches which are cut every other
year or so, and never long escape the spoiler :
then, baffled in their natural instinct to grow into
branches, the trees throw up spurs and whips from
their roots, and every pollard stump—more or
less rotten at the core—is surrounded with a belt
of suckers and of sprew. It is no more nature's
notion of primeval woodland than are closely-
cropped hair and shaven lip and chin her
intention for the real expression of the human
face." No candid person who remembers the
state of things thus described can deny the im-
provement which is already manifest. Spindly
and unhealthy trees have been removed, and pro-
mising groups or individuals, relieved from this
competition, redouble their vigour, while masses
of healthy saplings, holly, and thorn afford shelter
to all wild things.
Referring to the suggestions, under the heading
of " variety," made above, it will be seen that
the area over which active thinning operations are
still required is very much narrowed. There is
now little that is urgent outside the Manors of
Loughton, Waltham, and Sewardstone, and even