NEEDWOOD FOREST. 45 



front of Tumor's Lodge, must have seen in the fifteen 

 hundred years during which it has stood there, and what 

 changes ! Gone are the severe forest laws ; gone the ex- 

 chisive rights of chase, and with them too have vanished 

 ranger and axe-bearer, bloodhound, highwayman, and 

 deerstealer alike. Only the oaks and the hollies remain, 

 and where will you see them in greater perfection ? Take, 

 for instance, the Swilcar Oak, between Woodroffe's Cliff 

 and Marchington Cliff, which girths twenty- one feet four 

 inches at a height of six feet from the ground ; the 

 Kaven's Oak near Yoxall, which served as a guide-post 

 for travellers ; or the noble one in Bagot's Park, called 

 the Beggar's Oak, under whose spreading branches a troop 

 of cavalry has been drawn up. If trees have feelings, or 

 if, as the Arcadian Myths would have us believe, each has 

 its Dryad, how these must have mourned when a prosaic 

 Act of Parliament, which took effect on Christmas Day, 

 1802, "divided, allotted, and enclosed the forest ; " when 

 the axe and the mattock felled the tree and grubbed the 

 thicket, and the deer, which escaped the peasant's gun, 

 took refuge in tlie neighbouring woods, where some of 

 their descendants still remain to baffle hounds and help 

 the fox to this day. Lord Vernon, who was ranger, 

 disapproved strongly of the measure, telling Mr. Michael 

 Turnor, his deputy ranger, that " the poor need wood," and 

 that is the derivation of the name. Certain people, it is 

 true, had rights of pasturage, and wood for fuel and other 

 purposes, which led to serious disputes, and compensation 

 was made for them when they were taken away. The 

 Forest Banks, however, were untouched, and retain all 

 their ancient beauty, as does Bagot's Park. In the Banks 

 there is a dingle, known as Bartram's to this day, where 

 one, Bartram, a fugitive from the law, built a hut, and 

 remained hidden for years. But perhaps the most 

 picturesque figure of the time was Michael Turnor, of 

 whom numerous stories are told. He is described in his 

 latter years as "an old man of gentle manners, with his 

 white hair parted across his brow." They come of a good 



