In writing of the hurricane of 1987 - which providentially did him little damage - he quotes Daniel Defoe on the great tempest of 26 November 1703; and his local heroine is Jane Austen, who was born and lived in the nearby village of Steventon. He also found that he had inherited a considerable amount of coal, scattered about on the ground - a relic from the steam age of the main London-Southampton railway line, which bounds one side of the wood.Although a gentle fellow at heart, Professor Evans was driven to declare war on the various pests which were attacking his trees, among them rabbits and grey squirrels. His own expertise enabled him to calculate that in 1987 his property was carrying more than 1,000 tons of timber, and that the amount was increasing by about 80 tons a year. Off duty, he is frequently to be found beavering away in the 22-acre wood on a slope of the Hampshire downs which he bought in partnership with his brother-in-law during 1985.His book A Wood of Our Own - attractively produced, and written with infectious enthusiasm - describes the excitement of finding the place, the satisfaction of buying it "for the price of a good quality family car", and the immense enjoyment he has derived from managing it ever since.Clearly, the wood has come to play a large part in his life, and much of the work that has gone into it has been done by members of his family. In real life Julian Evans is Chief Research Officer of the Forestry Commission, and a leading authority on broadleaved trees. They made me realise that even if one entertains romantic notions of communing with nature, and hopes that one may be making a sound long- term investment, the best reason for owning a wood is that it gives one a chance to work among the trees.

By clearing, thinning, felling and planting, one can substantially improve a patch of land, and influence its appearance for perhaps the next hundred years.Now I am glad to find a professional forester agreeing with this diagnosis. Why buy a wood? I posed that question in this column last year, when I described my attempt to purchase a 50-acre plantation in Shropshire. The attempt failed, largely because the wood was so attractive that several prospective buyers went after it, and the price rocketed out of my reach. The same thing happened again soon afterwards with a property in the Cotswolds, much nearer home. This also had powerful attractions, not least the fact that it was well tucked away in the hinterland, and dropped into a lovely hidden valley. Those two near-misses, disappointing though they were, concentrated my mind. For more information on Parish Mapping send a large SAE to Common Ground, Seven Dials, Warehouse, 44 Earlham Street, London WC2H 9LA.