84 THE FORESTS OF ENGLAND. 



the original ' Forest ' as is now understood by that term, 

 remains, for the few woods that have been suffered to 

 exist, being merely allowed to form bushy underwood that 

 is felled every seven years, or permitted to raise thin and 

 lank hop-poles, give but a very inadequate idea of the 

 sylvan aspect of olden times. Every year, too, diminishes 

 these limited woodlands, which are lessened by grubbing 

 up, and made arable, and it would be difficult at present 

 to find many old forest veterans that existed when the 

 Clares and Despencers, or later still, the BeaUchamps and 

 Nevilles, held their court at Hanley Castle. 



" But although individual trees of great size and age are 

 of rare occurrence, yet some woodlands that have been 

 such from the earliest times yet remain, and this is 

 especially the case where yews and hollies grow, darkening 

 the ground with sylvan gloom at all times. In the parish 

 of Powick, about the Berrow, as well as in various parts of 

 Colwall and Mathon, there are ancient woods sufficiently 

 embowered in foliage to reveal the picture Lucan has 

 drawn in Druidical times 



' Where in deep horror had for ages stood 

 A dark unviolated sacred wood ;' 



for notwithstanding the various enclosures of late years 

 that have reduced the once extensive Chase of Malvern to 

 a comparatively narrow compass except in name, secluded 

 spots still exist environed with trees and bushes, almost as 

 lonely, solitary, and deserted, as when through uninhabited 

 wastes the chief forester galloped about with his axe, the 

 dread of prowling caitiffs, or yeoman prickers moved 

 merrily along to rouse the stag from his lair in the ferny 

 hollow. About the eastern base of the Herefordshire 

 Beacon, and on either side of the Ragged Stone and 

 Casend Hills more to the south, are dingles leafy as ' Merry 

 Sherwood ' ever beheld ; the dense woods upon the Holly- 

 bush Hill are as solemn as old hollies and sombre 

 evergreen yew-trees can make them, while Castle Morton 

 common still shows a wide green expanse, with here and 



