TREES AND TREES. 103 



delight that could hardly be explained. It became evi- 

 dent at last that these groves and pastures must be the 

 residence of the rural deities, who by their invisible 

 presence inspired every heart with those delightful sen- 

 timents which, though not entirely unfelt on earth, are 

 well known in paradise. It was the presence of these 

 deities that yielded the place its mysterious charm. It 

 was the naiad who gave romantic melody to the foun- 

 tain that bubbled up from the mossy glen in the hill- 

 side, and spread the hue of beauty over the solitary lake 

 in the valley ; and the dryads, or wood nymphs, that 

 caused these woodland arbors to rival the green retreats 

 of Elysium." 



In England, almost alone of the older settled coun- 

 tries, large areas of woods remain, the prominent feat- 

 ures in the fair landscape scenery. There, not only the 

 forests, but many of the individual trees are intimately 

 associated with the history of the past as they are with 

 the myths and legends of the country. How many 

 clannish feuds and kingly quarrels have the dryads of 

 these gnarled and patriarchal old trees witnessed, some 

 of them reaching back into the distant centuries. The 

 ancestral tree is as much an object of interest as the cot- 

 tage or old manor hall that it shadows, and is equally a 

 sharer in the owner's regard. Among these are the 

 Great Oak, Major Oak, Oak of Parliament, the Swilcar 

 Oak of Needwood upwards of six hundred years]"old, 

 and the Eoyal Oak, in which Charles II. secreted him- 

 self after his defeat at Worcester. The Spread Oak of 

 Thoresby is a woods in itself, and would give shelter to 



