SHERWOOD FOREST. 19 



He says: 'More inward lies Shirewood, which some 

 interpret a clear wood, others a famous wood; formerly, 

 one close continued shade with the boughs of trees so 

 entangled in one another that one could hardly walk 

 single in the paths. At present it is much thinner, and 

 feeds an infinite number of deer and stags ; and has some 

 towns in it, whereof Mansfield is the chief.' The forest is 

 sadly altered now ; only a few vestiges of its olden 

 glories survive, and these have been so maimed, and 

 mauled, and battered about by time, and storm, and 

 tempest, that their very age inspires melancholy feelings. 

 No hunter's bugle-horn is ringing now ; there are no long 

 shady avenues to saunter along and dream of bold outlaws 

 and ruthless Norman kings ; no spreading oaks under 

 whose shade one could lie down and watch the gambols of 

 the deer. Civilisation has come, and the forest has gone. 

 It is at Bilhaugh where the best specimens of the old 

 tenants of the forest are to be found. Here are oaks that 

 cannot be less than six or seven centuries old ; that carry 

 us back through the days of the ' mighty hunters of the 

 forest' the pedantic James, the haughty Elizabeth, the 

 Henrys, the Edwards, and the Williams, the lion-hearted 

 Richard, and the pusillanimous John. Ay, and the fore- 

 fathers of these oaks must have been there when the 

 Saxon dwelt in the land, when the Druids cut the mistle- 

 toe, and higher and higher still, when wild beasts alone 

 ruled and ravaged our island." 



Such musings tell of the thing which has been. It has 

 been alleged that the forest oaks are only in the park of 

 Thoresby House, and that the domains here comprise by 

 far the most attractive part of the forest. Mr John 

 Hutton, of Woodcote, Epsom, writes, in a letter to the 

 editor of the Spectator : 



" On the contrary, by far the most attractive part of 

 Sherwood lies, north and south, between the park and the 

 village of Edwinstowe, and, east and west, between Cock- 

 glode- Mr Foljambe's place and the Centre Riding, and 

 is known as Birkland. The Major Oak, the oak called 



