INTRODUCTION 



inhale the pure air, gain inspiration from Nature's inexhaustible storehouse 



at every step you take into her sacred fastnesses ; the wood is in itself a 



rich museum, a fairy forest, full of wonders untold, secrets as yet unravelled, 



pathways as yet untrod, and the trees seem so very near that you know not 



solitude during your interviews and association with them. 



" At the gates of the forest," says Emerson, " the surprised man of the 



world is forced to leave his city estimates of great and small, wise and foolish. 



The knapsack of custom falls off his back with the first step he makes into 



these precincts. . . . Here is sanctity which shames our religions, and reality 



which discredits our heroes. . . . The tempered light of the woods is like 



a perpetual morning, and is stimulating and heroic. Here no history, or 



church, or state is interpolated on the divine sky and the immortal year ! " 



Yet, while the birds and other animals interest and amuse you with their 



winning ways, and you note the smaller plants, the crafty woodbine and 



the twining bryony, that by force of youthful sap thrust themselves over and 



around their fellows, it is the larger trees which look down upon you and 



seem to preach a living sermon, seem to proclaim a real message. The 



wind gently rustles the leaves so that they shimmer in the sunlight and 



thus produce a kind of woodland lullaby, a whisper of welcome, a message 



of friendliness, a spirit of companionship, a symphony of love. 



Never need one be dull or morose when in the neighbourhood of trees, 



and if people generally realised what we owe to them for the purposes of fuel, 



food, medicine, raiment, and timber, they would undoubtedly be much more 



highly regarded than they are to-day. They are happy sanctuaries for birds, 



squirrels, bats, a vast array of insects, and other animals ; they improve the 



landscape, temper the winds, consolidate the soil, give off an abundance of 



life-giving oxygen and breathe in the bad gases that we breathe out, and 



generally add a complete charm to the town or countryside such as no other 



branch of Dame Nature's fruitful family can ever hope to do. 



Surely our natural love is for trees, for the little copse, the wild woodland, 



or the virgin forest. From the latter we have, as it were, not long since 



emerged ; our woodcraft in some remote districts has lost none of its cunning. 



xxi 



