48 EOYAL CHASE OF SHIELOT. 



rest. Here and there, on indurated soils along tlie 

 valley sides, opportunities occur of studying tlie 

 manner in which, trees of several centuries' growth 

 send their gnarled and massive roots in between 

 the rocks in search of nourishment, for firmness, 

 or to resist storms that shake branches little in- 

 ferior to the parent stem. Few places probably have 

 finer old hollies and yew-trees indigenous to the 

 soil, relieving the monotony of the general grey by 

 their sombre green — trees rooted where they grew 

 six or eight centuries since, and carrying back the 

 mind to the time of Harold and the bowmen days of 

 Robin Hood. 



Spoonbill, a very well-known covert of the 

 Wheatland Hunt, was a slip of woodland as early 

 as a perambulation in 1356, when it was recorded 

 to lie outside the forest, its boundary on the Shirlot 

 side being marked by a famous oak called Kinsok, 

 "which stood on the king's highway between 

 Weston and Wenlock." 



The Larden and Lutwyche woods for many years 

 have been famous for foxes. The late M. Benson, 

 Esq., told us that a fox had for several seasons made 

 his home securely in a tree near his house, he hav- 

 ing taken care to keep his secret. The woods, too, 



