282 HOW TO GROW GOOD TIMBER. 



With arms full long, and largely displayed, 

 But of their leaves they were disarrayed ; 

 The body big, and mightily pight, 

 Thoroughly rooted, and of wond'rous height : 

 Whilom had been the king of the field, 

 And mockel mast to the husband did yield ; 

 And with his nuts lai'ded many a swine, 

 But now the grey moss marred his rine ; 

 His bared boughs were beaten with storms, 

 His top was bald and wasted with worms, 

 His honour decay'd, his branches sere. 



Shepherd's Calendar. 



This, indeed, is a melancholy sight, like the Stag's 

 Horn Oak by the roadside between Farnhani and 

 Woolmer, in the ancient boundary of Alice Holt 

 Forest ; yet this has a young tree growing by its side, 

 perhaps one of his own children, which gracefully 

 conceals much of his gaunt nakedness. In the same 

 forest are many old staggy trees, their contorted 

 horn-like branches sticking out in a most picturesque 

 manner from the top and sides of a still leafy head. 

 In these the white owls may yet be seen peering out 

 of dark cavernous hollows as they did in Gilbert 

 White's day ; and during the summer of 1861 we 

 with pleasure watched their motions, which so mi- 

 nutely agreed with those described by the father of 

 observing naturalists, that we cannot forbear quoting 

 his remarks thereon in his " Natural History of 

 Selborne," a not very distant parish from the Holt, 

 and to which he indeed often refers : — 



As I have paid particular attention to the manner of life of these 

 birds (the White Owl), during their season of breeding, which lasts 

 the summer through, th e following remarks may not be unacceptable. 

 About an hour before sunset (for then the mice begin to run), they 



