1][2 '^^^^^ NATUKALIST. 



Mansfield being, on these occasions, the general residence of the Court. 

 It was on one of these visits, that Henry, became acquainted with the 

 Miller of famous memory— Sir John Cockle ! as recorded in " Percy's 

 Rehques" and in Dodsley's Dramatic Entertainment, entitled the " King 

 and the Miller of Mansfield." Whatever amusement this eccentric miller 

 may have afforded the king and his suite, certain it is , that some other 

 attractions must have existed. Would it be mere surmise to suppose 

 that the vast extent of forest— the deer, and the sport, were not the chief 

 attractions in those days of yore, that Royal visits should have been so 

 frequent ? The Sherwood of 1864, notwithstanding that the scissors of 

 cultivation have clipped off some 80,000 acres, still presents attractions so 

 diversified, and is a field of such vast richness to the naturalist, that he 

 could scarcely err in designating it '•' Nature's unlimited storehouse." 



To the botanical tourist are presented most remarkable objects of 

 curiosity. Amongst the many large and venerable trees, the most re- 

 markable are, the " Greendale Oak," which is at least 700 years old, and 

 has a coach road cut through it; the ''Duke's Walking Stick," 111 feet 

 high, and 11 tons in weight ; the '* Two Porters," 38 and 34 feet in 

 circumference ; and the " Seven Sisters," all of which are situated in 

 Welbeck Park. 



Birkland, the property of the Duke of Portland, and Bilhaugh, be- 

 longing to Earl Manvers, two ancient woods three and half miles in length, 

 and about half a mile distant from the village of Edwinstowe, is that part 

 of Sherwood referred to in the following remarks. Many large and venerable 

 oaks are to be seen here, in every stage of perfection and decay. It appears 

 (as recorded in a local work,) that in cutting down some timber at the close 

 of the last century, letters were found cut or stamped in the body of the 

 trees, denoting the king's reign in which they were marked. This is 

 suj)posed to have been done by the bark being cut off and the letters cut 

 in ; after which, the next year's wood grew over the insciiption without 

 adhering where the bark had been removed. The cyphers when found, 

 were of James I., of William and Mary, and one of King John. The 

 latter was eighteen inches within the tree, and more than a foot from the 

 centre ; so that the tree must have been planted above a hundred years 

 before John's reign, and when it was cut down in 1791, must have been 

 about 706 years old ! 



We, a party of four, commenced our journey by taking train to Work- 

 sop. We noticed, after leaving Sheffield, Primula veris in abundance 



