254 ADVENTURES AMONG BIRDS 



until about the year 1885. The "ravens' clump" 

 where the birds had their nest still flourishes, but 

 the more famous, immeasurably older Gospel Oak, 

 which was an ancient tree when the cathedral at 

 Winchester was built and is believed to be the tree 

 under which St. Augustine stood when he preached 

 to the heathen in these parts, is, alas ! dead for ever, 

 and its hollow ruinous trunk is slowly crumbling 

 to dust. 



These Avington ravens were a good deal persecuted, 

 but invariably when one lost its life the other would 

 disappear for a few days to find and bring home a 

 new mate. At last some scoundrel got both birds, 

 and that was the end, for of course no others came to 

 fill their place. The old clerk related that when he 

 was a young man he worked for some years as under- 

 woodman on the estate, and he had many exciting 

 stories to tell of his tree-climbing feats. In those 

 distant days — about 1850 — climbing contests were 

 common among the men who worked in the woods 

 and parks, and he was the champion tree-climber 

 in the place. One day, when coming from work with 

 the other men, a squirrel was seen to run up an 

 exceedingly tall isolated fir tree, and he, in a moment 

 of madness, undertook to catch and bring it down. 

 Up after the squirrel he went until he could go no 

 further, and the little thing was still above him, afraid 

 to jump down and give him a chance to capture it, 

 clinging to a slender branch directly over his head 

 and out of reach. He then thought to knock it down 

 into his hands, and having selected a small branch 



