64 PROCEEDINGS COTTESWOLD CLUB 1912 



Next we went to the School, a really business-like estab- 

 lishment. Mr Hanson was about to give a lesson to the 

 students, who, as he explained in his lecture to the Club, de- 

 vote two years to theoretical and practical forestry. They live 

 on the school premises, sleeping in cubicles, and having meals 

 in common. There are excellent class-rooms, billiards and 

 other forms of recreation are provided on the ground floor, 

 and a Museum containing specimens of wood, cases illustrating 

 the life history of insect pests and the ravages they commit, 

 and many other things of an educational nature. One curio- 

 sity was a piece of timber bearing a Government mark of 

 ancient date. It was made years ago when Forest trees were 

 cut down for naval ship-building purposes. The stamped tree 

 did not fall to the woodman's axe, but went on growing. The 

 official sign thus became encased in the hard wood, and when, 

 eventually, the tree was cut down, it was found interned far 

 enough away from the bark. What we saw of the students 

 favourably impressed us. Their faces were intelligent, and 

 their bodies well-knit and strong. The latter is what one 

 would expect, seeing that to study is added fence-making, 

 tree-felling, lopping, &c. 



All this was very interesting, but our chief enjoyment was 

 derived during that walk to Soudley. Mr Hanson had put 

 himself in telephonic communication with a Crown keeper, 

 who lives in a Forest lodge on a breezy height a few miles 

 from Parkend and in our line of march for Soudley. This 

 official — looking every inch a Forester, although not clad in 

 Lincoln green — was in waiting in a hollow near that wonderful 

 piece of old Roman road about which so much has been 

 written. The portion exposed is comparatively small, but how 

 eloquent it is of the thorough way in which the Romans did 

 their work. The stone kerbing on either side the seven feet 

 track is as perfect as when laid seventeen or eighteen centuries 

 ago. The part laid bare leads down to a merry rippling 

 stream, and a little off-shoot pointing towards a modern 

 bridge which spans the stream a few roads from the main 

 track, seems to suggest that the present bridge occupies the 

 place of one much older. Once across the stream, we reach a 

 section of the road which has been opened up quite recently. 



