gracious Majesty had been pleased to own it publickly for my
encouragement, who in all that I here pretend to say, deliver only those
precepts which your Majesty has put in practise; as having, like another
Cyrus, by your own royal example, exceeded all your predecessors in the
plantations you have made, beyond, I dare assert it, all the Monarchs of
this nation, since the conquest of it.'

Apart from the planting done in the royal woods and forests, details of
Evelyn's diary shew that he was frequently called upon to give advice
with regard to laying out private plantations,--as well as of ornamental
gardens, on which subject he was also considered one of the leading
authorities of the time.

More than a century after Evelyn's death, during the time of our wars
with France, the demand for timber and the serious outlook with regard
to future supplies once more drew marked attention to the propagation of
timber throughout Britain, and many plantations of oak were then made
which have not yet been entirely cleared to make way for other and now
more profitable crops of wood. A very decided impetus was given in this
direction by the re-publication of the text of the fourth edition of
_Sylva_ (as finally revised by the author in 1678), with copious notes
by Dr. A. Hunter F.R.S. in 1812. A most appreciative and favourable
review of this work is contained in the _Quarterly Review_ for March
1813 (Vol. ix), which was of much assistance in drawing the attention of
our great landowners to the advantages of growing timber. Plantations
could then be made at about one-fourth to one-third (and often less than
that) of what it now costs to make them, while the market for timber and
wood of all sorts was then favourable, with a steady demand likely to
increase as time rolled on and the national commerce and industries
expanded,--because in those days the economic revolution, accomplished
through the subsequent discoveries of the great uses to which steam and
iron are now put, were not then dreamed of.

This _Quarterly Review_ article was an appreciation of Evelyn,--and not
the only one made by that celebrated periodical, as we shall see
presently. It traced the history of the work, showing how Charles II.
'was too sensible a man to think of compelling his subjects to plant, by
fines and forfeitures for the omission. Example he knew would do
something, and he had scope enough for the purpose in his own wasted
forests; but an animated