vi PEEFACE. 



Burnham Beeches, and have now the happiness 

 of living amid my own " green retreats." ' To the 

 writer's mind, therefore, for th'e moment, it was 

 the especial verdancy of spring and summer 

 which suggested the picture of * sylvan scenery ;' 

 and sylvan scenery, to the popular mind, is an 

 expression which mostly implies the leanness of 

 the seasons that precede the fall. Yet the ancient 

 worship of trees must rather have been suggested 

 by the stern wintry aspect of the monarchs of 

 the woods, than by the softer appearance of their 

 summer clothing for the strength and power 

 and grandeur, if the idea may be allowed, of 

 the tree- form would be more conspicuous when 

 divested of foliage. Similarly the grandeur and 

 solemnity of the forest would more powerfully 

 affect the feelings when the great trunks and 

 huge limbs of the sylvan giants stood out clearly 

 defined against the wintry sky. The ' sacred 

 hunt 'for the venerated Mistletoe was a winter 

 rite for that curious parasitic evergreen could not 

 have been discovered amongst the summer mass 

 of green leaves; and the * sacred fire' of the 

 Druids, communicated from the burning Yule-log, 



