|
Several authors, who have mentioned the soil of these
counties, have represented it as unfavourable to the growth
of timber; which I believe very true with respect to the
mosses, and some other places; yet every inhabitant knows,
that the glebe in general, if left to itself, that is, if
exempted from the plough and the scythe, nor trod by cattle,
would soon be covered with trees, and that the country would
become one large forest; and this shews that its natural
disposition is not to become a naked woald, but a desart of
wood. A desart of wood it has indeed been, tho' in many
places as poor as that of almost any country, and as ill
calculated for the purposes of agriculture; particularly in
the mosses that are amongst, or perhaps upon the mountains:
these however have their woods; the birch, the wild-ash, the
wythe, as it is called, and some others, are disposed to
grow even in the wildest situations: slow in their growth,
it is true, and for the most part stunted; which may be
attributed to their being grazed upon by sheep, and naked to
the winds; for as those places which seem at present most
unpromising with respect to this kind of vegetation, and
where (particularly in peat-mosses on the tops of pretty
high hills) no man can easily persuade himself that a stick
of any kind would grow, are found yet filled with the roots,
trunks, and branches of trees of very different sizes; it
seems as if these places did but want their original
encouragement to become forests again. It may indeed be
alleged , in opposition to such a thought, that the soil
itself has undergone a material change, that the fall of the
woods and the stagnation of the waters has given birth to
that vegetation which constitutes peat-mosses, and that this
vegetation is an accumulation of putrid vegetable matter. If
this be the case, yet still such putrid matter is found to
be that of the roots of that plant, which in these parts is
called Bent, and not of timber, which is generally
preserved entire; and as this Bent seems the native and
aboriginal growth of such Moors, who can prove that it did
not exist at the same time as the woods, and that it did not
occasion mosses then? Independent, however, of this, the
circumstances which have fallen in the way of my observation
make me think it far from impossible, that, were these
countries left desolate by man and the tamer animals, for a
great number of years that the ancient appearances would
arise at large, and a sylvan wilderness efface the labours
of the husbandman: this would begin probably in the warmer
and more fertile places, and proceed gradually, one tree
sheltering and encouraging another, to those which are more
exposed and barren. There are still whole forests left on
the sides of some hills, where many of the trees find
nutriment almost upon the bare rock; they are also to be
found in the more inaccessible parts of others, that are
elsewhere naked. I do not indeed know of any positive
evidence that can be produced, either on this side of the
question or on the opposite one, neither does the discussion
of it belong particularly to my subject; yet it may be
proper to mention, as analogous to what has gone before,
that in three old manuscripts I have found mention made of
the porklings which ran wild in the woods growing on the
sides of hills above Mungrisdale; that these porklings
belonged to the Monks, who had a chauntry at a place called
Stow in that neighbourhood; that from these Monks the chapel
has a part of its name, and the other part from the old word
signifying Swine. In Grisdale also you will, as in many
other places, be told by some person or another, that in
former times the trees were so close together, that a man
has gone a certain distance, or ascended such or such a
hill, without touching the ground, and merely travelling
from the top of one tree to that of another; nor are these
times so very remote, but your informer will in general tell
you the name of the man whose forefather, at the distance of
three or four ages, he was; yet a place less likely for the
growth of timber, or more devoid of it at present, will not
easily be found in the North of England. Even this, however,
does not militate against what I formerly advanced; for
trees will grow there, if encouraged; and some kinds, as the
asp (sic), seem particularly disposed to propagate
themselves. But the forest and its wild inhabitants
generally shrink from the presence of man!
|
Lakes Guides menu.
