198 EEV. CAlfON GEE — ■WINDSOE FOREST 



often-quoted verses upon the castle and its history, and he intro- 

 duces those lines upon the rivers of England which give a descrip- 

 tive notice of many a southern stream. He well associates the 

 forest with the navy, and tells us how the water is waiting for 

 the growth of the land : 



' ' Thy trees, fair "Windsor ! now shall leave their woods, 

 And half thy forest rush into the floods." 



Then he traces the voyage of the ship-shaped timber into different 

 regions. He sees them as far off as Mexico, then returns to close 

 his song with a reference, I understand, to the early date of this 

 particular poem : 



' ' Enough for me that to the listening swains 

 First in these fields, I sung the sylvan strains." 



He could scarcely have meant that he was the first English poet to 

 celebrate Windsor Forest. 



Pope's mention of rivers entitles me, I think, to account for the 

 absence of all reference to streams or streamlets in this paper. 

 "Windsor Forest is by some considered to be situated " in a bend of 

 the Thames," but it is not now, as a forest, traversed by any 

 stream. The river is its boundary rather than its fertiliser or occu- 

 pant. There are famous river spots, however, in our close neigh- 

 bourhood, and Denham, of Cooper' s-hill, just outside the Park, in 

 his poem, does justice to the historical association of the river and 

 forest. I am always aghast at his description of the Thames. Its 

 behaviour must have been different in his day from its demeanour in 

 ours. Any one who, within the last few weeks, has seen the 

 Thames rushing through Windsor Bridge like the Danube, and has 

 looked over the Eton playing-fields and the Brocas and the Clewer 

 fields all under water, would scarcely have written of the Thames, 



" Oh could I flow like thee and make thy stream, 

 My great example as it is my theme ; 

 Though deep yet clear, though gentle yet not duU, 

 Strong without rage, without o'er-flowing full." 



But Sir Gr. Denham makes full mention how the forest comes down 

 to the very banks of the Thames, and recognises Runnymede as 

 within its boundaries. That is the meadow perhaps so called from 

 Rune, or Council, where, according to Matthew of Westminster, 

 before King John's time, men used to meet to decide their differ- 

 ences. It is just beyond Old Windsor, and is now, I expect, more 

 or less under water. Certainly the Barons must have found it 

 damp even on the 15th of June, 1215, and I should hardly form 

 any plan for walking or driving which involved my crossing it at 

 the time I am now writing. Charles Knight calls it our Marathon, 

 and its situation and natural interest will excuse its introduction 

 even to a Natural History Society. Denham enables me to give it 

 a forestal allusion. Speaking of hunting over this ground, he says : 



*' This a more innocent and happy chase 

 Than when of old but in the self-same place, 

 Fair liberty pursued and meant a prey 

 To lawless power, here turned and stood at bay." 



