84 A KENTISH PARISH 



more lovely, buried away out of sight in the woods. 

 For we had forgotten to say that, on the southern 

 boundaries of Oakenhurst, there is a wood that almost 

 takes the proportions of a forest, considering that it 

 lies in one of the home counties, and is skirted by the 

 railway to Dover. Here are thickets, and there are 

 glades, with hollies overgrown with honeysuckle and 

 gnarled thorns that have been warped by time, with 

 roots as much above ground as below ; while hidden in 

 some swampy nook, like a wild-duck's nest among the 

 sedges, stands the dwelling of some squatter, who is 

 rich with his flocks of geese or the hogs he turns loose 

 under the oak trees. 



