Wor tiers in Woodcraft. 283 



hereabouts, and abuses the young trees with 

 carving not Rosalind but " Emilie " on their barks. 

 The sentiment which stops the growth of the 

 young beeches appeals to no finer sense within 

 the bosom of the old man. And so he roundly 

 denounces the wandering lover who has carved 

 thereon the name he adores, in no unmeasured 

 terms. 



In summer a few purple beeches light up 

 the wood, and the old man is surprised to learn 

 that all trees of this variety sprang from a single 

 tree which was found growing wild in the midst 

 of one of the immense forests of Thuringia. 

 But more than all the interest that attaches to 

 the trees are the uses to which their wood is 

 put. The little church on the Fellside opposite 

 consists internally of oak from this very wood ; 

 and so, too, do half the beams and rafters in the 

 parish. The hard, close-grained wood of the 

 beech, too, is used for a great variety of purposes 

 as well as fuel. Interspersed throughout the 

 wood are numbers of ash-trees, soon to be 

 arrayed in feathery lightness, but now more 

 reminding us of Tennyson's naturalistic simile, 

 " Black as ashbuds in March." The toughness 

 and elasticity of the wood of the ash are well 

 known, and here is an opportunity for the display 

 of the timber genius of our old friend. There 

 is, he tells us, little else than this about the yard 

 of the village wheelwright. Cart shafts are 



