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hardly manage to exist, we arrive at two oak woods which are 
among the best in the country. They are known as the North 
Bentley and South Bentley Woods, and have a very interesting 
history. It is recorded that these two identical woods have been 
used to grow oak timber from a very early period. A heavy crop” 
was taken off the ground in the time of Queen Elizabeth. The 
woods were then replanted, and the oak, well matured, was cut down 
in the reign of William III., in whose days the present trees were 
sown upon the ground. 
The explanation given by Mr Lascelles regarding the regeneration 
of these two woods was listened to with rapt attention. Accord- 
ing to a record still extant, it appears that “pits or beds of three 
spits of ground each were dug a yard apart, and three acorns 
planted triangularly in each bed. Half a bushel of acorns were 
allotted for each person to plant in one day. Two regarders 
attended every day during the time of planting to see that it was 
properly done, and after the ground was fully planted with acorns, 
it was sown with hawes, holly berries, sloes, and hazel nuts. 
Drains were cut where necessary, traps were set to catch mice, and 
persons attended daily to reset the traps and keep off crows and 
other vermin.” 
These plantations which were thus formed do not seem to have 
been thinned at an early age, and the trees were accordingly drawn 
up with a straight habit like larch or pine wood, and though the 
soil is not first-rate, there is to-day on the ground a greater number 
of cubic feet of pure oak to the acre than is anywhere else to be 
seen. This, at all events, was the opinion of the Professors from 
the French Forest School at Nancy, who, under M. Boppe, with 
their students, had an excursion through this country a few years ago, 
and carefully inspected these oak plantations. The trees now run 
about seventy to the acre in the South Wood, and rather more in the 
North Wood. They have beautifully clean, straight boles—rising 
to an average height of about 70 feet, where they begin to form a 
branching, stag-like head. They commanded the special admira- 
tion of the party on account of their sound marketable quality, and 
though foresters would not probably sow down oak woods with 
acorns in the same manner at the present day, it could not be 
denied that the experiment of nearly two hundred years ago had 
been a great success. Two of the larger trees, measured in the 
North Wood, girthed 8 feet 4 inches and 7 feet 4 inches respec- 
tively, and it was computed that the former contained about 150 
