16 THBOUGH SHEBWOOD FOBEST. [Nov., 



of the tree, trunk, branches and all, becomes one frost-work of 

 intensely brilliant silver, which is relieved against the clear sky 

 like a biirniii'^ fringe, for some distance on either side of the sun.* 

 This phenomenon it is to which Shakespere alludes when he makes the 

 heroic but ill-fated Eichard II. speak of the sun, * when from under 

 this terrestial ball he fires the proud top of the eastern Pines ; ' 

 and tliis, too, Wordsworth refers to more precisely in his ' Stanzas 

 composed in the Simplon Pass : ' 



' My thoughts become bright like yon edging of Pines 

 On the steep's lofty verge : how it blacken'd the air ! 

 But, touched from behind by the sun, it now shines, 

 With threads that seem pai't of his own silver hair.' 



G. S. BOULGER. 



THROUGH SHERWOOD FOREST. 



»T has always been a matter of speculative moment'' whether 

 such a romantic freebooter as Eobin Hood ever dwelt amid 

 the sylvan beauties of Sherwood Forest, or ever carried on 

 that system of dehghtful plunder with which his memory is 

 always associated. Few persons indeed are unacquainted with 

 the names of Kobin Hood, of Maid Marian, and of Little John ; 

 and while Eip Van Winlde wdll ever be remembered by the gush- 

 ing American, these heroes of the forest and glade will not b^ 

 allowed to perish in English minds for lack of Idndly thought and 

 affectionate remembrance. Although grave doubts are exercised 

 regarding the existence of the gallant 'brigand' of the forest, 

 there are no doubts entertained as to the existence of the leafy 

 domains where he is reputed to have lived and thriven on venison 

 and wine, for Sherwood Forest is of too great a magnitude to be 

 overlooked in this toiling land of ours. It is undoubtedly one of 

 the largest— if not the largest — forest within the limits of this 

 Island, and at one time its acreage must have been scarcely 

 computable. With the extending prevalence of civilising ideas, 

 and nineteenth-century progress, a great amount of deforestation 

 has taken place, and the Sherwood of to-day is not what it w^as 

 one or two centuries ago. The axe of the forester is constantly 

 heard ringing through the woods, and many a fine monarch has 

 been laid low by the pitiless blade of the stm-dy yeoman. Large 

 tracts of land have been cleared, and corn is waving to-day where 

 a dense and almost impenetrable forest once existed. 



The capital of Sherwood Forest is claimed by both the towns 

 of Mansfield and Worksop, and it is difficult to decide their 

 respective claims to that honourable title. The northern part of 



