108 THE FORESTS OF ENGLAND. 



bole of this tree was about 3 ft. high, and its total height 

 to the topmost branches 15 ft. The trunk was hollow, but 

 still full of life. Its circumference was 6 ft. It was at its 

 prime probably about the height of an average oak ; this 

 must have been at the period of the Norman Conquest, 

 and it is still as tough a dwarf, for a tree, as the notorious 

 Quilp was for a man. Time-worn as the stems and trunks 

 are, they are well covered by their spreading and flattened 

 heads. Seen at a distance in August, a sheet of green 

 seems spread upon the hill-side. I do not remember oaks 

 more uniform in the character of their umbrella-like heads, 

 or with foliage of a brighter green. Whether the trees 

 were planted by man or by nature, their security is due to 

 the sheltering blocks of granite amid which they stand, 

 and to the moss-covered props and slabs on which the 

 branches rest. 



" There is, I think, no apparent reason for concluding 

 that this was a planted wood. It is true no acorn springs 

 at present, and even where the branches of youngest wood 

 lie along flat stones, embedded and sopped in moss, under 

 the most favourable circumstances for emitting roots, they 

 fail in that common means of reproduction in consequence 

 of the smallest branches even being too old, hard, and tough. 

 When, therefore, the old trees crumble a thousand years 

 hence, they will leave no successors. 



" According to common report, Wistman's Wood swarms 

 with vipers. It is a damp and unlikely site for reptiles of 

 this kind, and perhaps the rumour may be in some way 

 connected with a common legend attaching to several 

 historical trees. A serpent guarded the Golden Fleece, 

 and the apples of the garden of Hesperides, and a sleepless 

 snake was coiled around the Yggdrasil. 



" There was a widespread persuasion in Devonshire that 

 the Druids found mistletoe in Wistman's Wood, and col- 

 lected it with great ceremony on the occasion of an annual 

 festival ; but this must be an error, and the derivation of 

 the name of Wistman's Wood from that of the wisemen 

 i.e., the Druids, is no doubt incorrect [?] 



