AUGUST 311 



tithe (about 257.) and repairs (a varying quantity). 1 On the 

 pastures of this farm grow some very good oaks, and, remembering 

 a particularly grand tree in a certain meadow,_ I went to look at 

 it. Presently it came in sight, but although the big bole was 

 there, somehow its appearance seemed to have changed. Then I 

 saw the whole truth. The lower limbs of the tree great rungs 

 which had been perhaps one or two hundred years in growing 

 had been mercilessly sawn off. It was ruined. Full of feelings 

 which it would be improper to express on paper, I proceeded to 

 another part of the farm where stood a second fine oak. To be 

 brief, the same thing had happened the lower boughs were 

 sawn off, and its shape and beauty, which had slowly matured 

 through centuries, were destroyed for ever. Then I am afraid 

 that I lost my temper. Calling the head man on the farm the 

 tenant himself was not there I spoke my mind to him, and asked 

 why this thing had been done, telling him with truth that however 

 little I might be able to afford it, I would rather have given a 

 year's rent of the farm than see those oaks thus mangled. To all 

 this his only reply was that his master had told him to cut off 

 the limbs ; the fact being, I presume, that as in each case the trees 

 threw some shadow on the adjoining arable land, it was thought 

 profitable to thin them by removing the lower boughs, which 

 could be used as firewood. I know another instance of the same 

 thing, where, on an estate belonging to a relation, the lower 

 branches of a whole line of oaks which stand by a footpath 

 were hacked off by the tenant without the owner even being 

 spoken to about the matter.' Five-and-twenty years ago such 

 an outrage could scarcely have happened, but now the tenant 

 is often master of the situation, and this is one way of showing 

 his independence. 



I must add that since the above was written Mr. Simpson has 

 received a letter from the gentleman concerned in this tree- 



1 To show what has been the decrease in the value of agricultural land in 

 these counties, I may point out that in 1860 this farm brought in an annual 

 rent of 2637. 



