8 THE BIRDS OF SHERWOOD FOREST. 
Westminster Abbey, and sufficiently capacious for a 
carriage and four horses to pass through it.” The 
dimensions of the archway were, height ten feet three 
inches, width six feet three inches. In consequence of 
the shores by which the old tree is supported, the feat 
of driving through it cannot now be performed, but I 
have often walked through, and wondered that it still 
retained any life. 
Welbeck Park has produced several other oaks 
remarkable for size. One called the “ Duke’s Walking 
Stick,” which was cut down about 1800, was one hundred 
and eleven feet, six inches high, the first branch spring- 
ing out of the trunk at the height of seventy feet, six 
inches; the circumference of this tree at fourteen feet 
from the ground was fourteen feet. There is another 
worthy to take the place of this fallen giant, called the 
“Young Walking Stick,’ of the juvenile age of 140 
years ; it is more than one hundred feet in height, and 
so straight and clean that it would be nearly fit for 
the mast of a ship as it stands, though its circumference 
at three feet from the ground is only five feet. 
Thoresby Park also contains some fine oaks which 
would almost rival the one just mentioned, whilst there 
are scores of others which elsewhere would be noticeable, 
but here in the presence of their loftier companions they 
attract little attention except from the few genuine 
admirers of nature. Rufford Park, too, can boast of some 
exceedingly lofty beeches, though I regretted to notice 
on a late visit that several of the largest had lost one or 
two arms from the effect of high winds, which detracted 
from their general symmetry. 
Leaving the parks we will turn into the open forest, 
and there amongst thousands of venerable old trees, 
