Note 5 — THE GATHERER.
Reading edition
Footnote 5
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Evelyn passed much of his time in planting; and his Sylva, or a Discourse on Forest Trees, is one of the most valuable works in the whole compass of English literature. He describes himself as "borne at Wotton, among the woods," situate about four miles from Dorking, in a fine valley leading to Leith Hill. In book iii. chap. 7, of his Sylva, he says, "To give an instance of what store of woods and timber of prodigious size were grown in our little county of Surrey, my own grandfather had standing at Wotton, and about that estate, timber that now were worth £100,000. Since of what was left my father (who was a great preserver of wood) there has been £30,000. worth of limber fallen by the axe, and the fury of the hurricane in 1703, by which upwards of 1,000 trees were blown down. Now, no more Wotton! stript and naked, and ashamed almost to own its name." The Wotton woods are still flourishing, and within the last fourteen years we have passed many delightful days beneath their shade. Many a time and often in our rambles have we met the venerated Sir Samuel Romilly in one of the most beautiful ridges of the park, called the Deer-leap, wooing Nature in her delightful solitudes of wood and glade. He resided at Leith Hill, and the distance thence to Wotton is but a short ride.