. • Sherwood Forest. 257 



same letters in relief, which filled up the interstices of the former, 

 before the piece was split. 



It is remarkable, tliat where the bark has been stripped off for 

 cutting the letters, the wood which grows over the wound never 

 adheres to that part, but separates of itself when the wood is cut in 

 that direction. The third has the letters W M, with a crown, for 

 William and jNIary, the fourth has the letter I, with an imperfect 

 impression of a blunt radiated crown, resembling those represented in 

 old prints on the head of King John, and another piece cut out of an 

 oak, had the same kind of crown with I O and E, for John Eex. 

 The first piece of oak, with the letters I and R was about one foot 

 within the tree, and one foot from the centre ; it was cut down in 

 1786. That with W M and a crown was about nine inches within 

 the tree, and three feet six inches from the centre, and was cut down the 

 same year. The piece marked I, for John, was eighteen inches within 

 the tree, and above a foot from the centre; it was cut down in 1791. 



The same writer remarks that this extensive grove of ancient and 

 majestic oaks is beautifully diversified by the slender and pendent 

 branches of the silver-coated birch. Many of these venerable oaks 

 are of extraordinary size, and undoubtedly of very great antiquity, one 

 may venture to say at least a thousand years old. Several of them 

 measure about thirty-four feet in circumference, and notwithstanding 

 the hollowness of their trunks, their tops and lateral branches are- 

 rich in foliage. So late as the beginning of the eightenth century 

 this forest was full of trees, as the Rev. Dr. Wylde, Rector of St. 

 Nicholas, Nottingham, placed it on record that he had often heard his 

 father, who died in 1780, in the 83rd year of his age, say, that he 

 well remembered one continuous wood from Mansfield to Nottingham. 

 Some of tlie trees remarkable for their antiquity, and which were in 

 existence at the commencement of the present century, are an oak 

 on the west side of Clipstone park, called the Parliament oak, from a 

 traditional account of a Parliament having being held under it in the 

 reign of King John, or probably Edward I. (they both resided in the 

 palace of Clipstone) ; the broad oak at'' the north end of Clipstone 

 park, twenty-seven feet six inches in circumference ; also the Langton 

 Arbour Elm, and the Raven Oak. 



The same mismanagement and downright dishonesty which other 

 forests already noticed suffered from, are displayed in the history of 

 Sherwood forest. In 171G the surveyor-general of the woods held a 

 sale of trees which had been blown down by a storm. These trees were 

 valued by the verderers at £2,473 9s. 4d, But in the account sales 

 which was not passed before the auditor until 1746, the produce was 

 stated to have only £850, and that sum exactly was expended in 

 fees and allowances to the surveyor-general, and the expenses in the 



VOL. 1, T 



