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 exhortation from the press, in an age when the nobility and gentry began to read and to reflect, he knew would do more.
A proper person for the purpose therefore was sought and found; a man of family, fortune, and learning; an experienced planter; a virtuoso, and not a little of an enthusiast in his own walk.