Old Trees
There is one other spectacle that must be set against the general charm of the district—against the daffodils that here flourish surprisingly more in the woods than in the open, and often in rather soggy spots: against the glory of the wood, that clings to the steep northern escarpment, and against the freedom of the open Down itself. Over some areas the timber has been sold and felled, and the wood has been destroyed. We must, of course, grant that trees are for unqualified use as well as for the use of beauty. It is those that have not been so regarded whiCh are the worst eyesore. Neither those who have exploited the timber nor the Forestry Commis- sioners, who here and there have taken over the ground, have thought it worth their while to fell the trees that had out- stayed their welcome, that were too old to be of use. Some few stand up gaunt and forlorn as the trunks of trees that have just survived a forest fire. Many hard things have been said, especially by local people, about the Forestry Commission, in Westmorland, for example, and in Breckland ; but in Sussex, as, indeed, in most, though not all other places, they plant trees that are wholly suitable to the place, and the destroyed woods begin to rise again, as things both of beauty and use. Do old and mouldering trees harbour disease? They certainly do in a grove of elms, but perhaps not among most other species.
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