64 PRACTICAL ORNITHOLOGY. 



with a few scattered gnarled oaks, shivered and blasted, in their 

 last stage of decay, present a scene of wildness and desolation 

 highly contrasted with some of the adjoining beautiful valleys 

 and fertile country. The rocks are in a great measure schistose, 

 being of primitive slate or greywacke, and referred by modern 

 geologists to the Cambrian system. 



" The Forest of Charnwood, which this park abuts upon, has 

 had an extent of fifteen or sixteen thousand acres. The In- 

 closure Act passed in 1811, when it soon became disafforested, 

 and was shorn of its ancient glory. Now, it is only in the 

 more elevated parts, to which the plough is denied access, that 

 any traces of its pristine condition remain. I may however 

 mention a tract of land situate amongst the Whitwick Rocks, 

 which overhang Grace Dieu Priory, as having escaped cultiva- 

 tion. Here the gorse blooms in its golden beauty, the Fox- 

 glove, loveliest of our forest flowers, gladdens every dell, and 

 enamels every rock, and the Blue Bell, Campanula rotundi- 

 folia, nods to the passing breeze. Here too we find occasion- 

 ally a patch of brown heath, sometimes tenanted by the Dottrel, 

 the Grey Plover, and the Ringed Thrush. I suppose this tract 

 of table-land may extend to a thousand or fifteen hundred acres. 

 The Trappist monks have a monastery here, and are cultivat- 

 ing a part of the ground. 



" I shall not attempt further description of our forest range, 

 lest I should become tedious. Yet I ought to say, for your 

 guidance, that Charnwood Forest is free from timber, and was 

 so at the time of its inclosure in 1811. But the recently plant- 

 ed clumps of trees and coppices are growing very rapidly, so 

 that in another generation there will remain very little of its 

 present bareness, except the rugged rocks, and everlasting hills. 

 Around Charnwood Forest, unless in the park and wood, and 

 very old inclosure, the Elm, Ulmus campestris, is the principal 

 tree ; and even for miles south of Leicester it prevails." 



