104: HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS. 



a regiment of men. The Greendale Oak of Welbeck 

 probably takes the priority in age, and is supposed to be 

 1,500 years old. Heme's Oak, where the wood goblin 

 had his haunts and about which " the fairies danced with 

 twenty glow worms for their lamps," when they played 

 the game against Falstaff for his evil desire, was blown 

 down a few years ago. There have been good Rhecuses 

 to look after some of these trees, who have banded and 

 riveted and propped them up to stay them against decay 

 and storm. England may well hold in high esteem her 

 trees, especially her noble oaks, as she is indebted to 

 them in a large degree for her supremacy on the sea. 



As the wealth of a country increases, people have 

 more leisure for the cultivation and enjoyment of aes- 

 thetic tastes, and the old homesteads with their wooded 

 surroundings become dearer in the eyes of each succes- 

 sive generation, and many an old oak or maple or elm 

 on the premises is looked upon with the same reverence 

 as the family monument in the burying ground. This 

 feehng is becoming more general too in communities, 

 especially in our eastern cities. With what scrupulous 

 care the people of Boston guard the old trees on the 

 commons ! 



When the old Charter Oak at Hartford was blown 

 down a few years since, many of the inhabitants of the 

 place were really in mourning, and the band, wearing 

 badges of grief, marched through the city, and during 

 the afternoon played sad music over the prostrate old 

 weather-beaten land-mark of the past. 



