APRIL 139 



of the bole with any suitable instrument till the great roots are 

 discovered branching this way and that. Then the woodmen 

 begin upon these with their mattocks, which sink with a dull thud 

 into the soft and sappy fibre, first cutting those of them that are 

 upon the rope side. When all which can be conveniently reached 

 are severed, leaving only those that go straight down, and in the 

 case of oaks and some other trees the great tap-root which pierces 

 far into the earth beneath, they begin upon the bole, cutting 

 it with hundreds of strokes, none of them delivered with very 

 great force, and to the eye of the careless observer apparently 

 aimed at random, which ends in shaping it to the form of a pear, 

 the stalk of the pear being represented by the tap-root and the 

 portion of timber that still remains above. 



I remember a curious incident connected with the tap-root of 

 an oak. This oak, a good tree of perhaps two hundred years' 

 growth, was being felled in Bradenham Wood, in this county, 

 when the woodmen called attention to something peculiar on the 

 tap-root. On clearing it of soil, we found that the object was a 

 horse-shoe of ancient make. Obviously in the beginning an acorn 

 must have fallen into the hollow of this cast shoe, and as it 

 grew through the slow generations the root filled up the circle, 

 carrying it down into the earth in the process of its increase, 

 till at length we found wood and iron thus strangely wedded. 

 That tap-root with the shoe about it is now, or used to be, a 

 paper-weight in the vestibule at Bradenham Hall. 



It is curious to notice the changes in the colour of the wood 

 as its separate layers are cut through. First there is the pink hue 

 of the bark and the membrane beneath it, then comes the white 

 of the outer wood, which in the case of oak we call * sap,' and 

 lastly the dark-coloured heart of oak. When the cutting has gone 

 so deep that the shape of the bole approaches to that of a peg-top, 

 the woodmen go to the end of the rope and pull upon it. Prob- 

 ably the tree makes no sign, but, with the exception of an 

 occasional slight quiver as though of fear, which causes the twigs 

 to tremble to their tips, stands as proud and upright as it has stood 



