THE ANGLER'S SOUVENIR. 



too good a mark for the stones of the grammar- 

 school lads to remain undefaced. Oswaldestree is 

 now corrupted into Oswestry, or more commonly, 

 among the country people, Hogestry, or Osistry. 

 Just above the well is the present battle-ground 

 where affairs of honour among the schoolboys are, 

 or used to be, settled by an appeal to fisticuffs. 



Crossing Llanvorda Park, we enter Craigvorda 

 woods, at once the most beautiful and picturesque 

 of the many similar woods on the borders. The 

 ground is mossy underfoot, the trees meet over- 

 head, glossy green ferns pave the noble corridors, 

 which have for pillars straight and sturdy firs and 

 larch, and for a roof the heavy foliage of inter- 

 woven sycamore and oak. At intervals the chesnut 

 too lifts its gigantic nosegay of pink and whito 

 and yellow flower-spikes ; and near it, out of some 

 craggy knoll, the "lady of the forest," the silver 

 birk, bends tenderly over the masses of blue 

 hyacinths below. " The shade is silent and dark 

 and green, and the boughs so thickly are twined 

 across, that little blue sky is seen between;" 

 but there is no lack of blue underfoot, for the 

 hyacinths seemed to have claimed the wood as 

 their own property, and shine like a shimmering 

 sea of blue between the tree stems, quite putting 

 out of countenance with their blaze of colour the 

 modest violet, growing by the side of the runnels 

 leaping downward to join the noisy brook. 



We crossed the Morda, a purling trout stream. 



