Cfte Cfte&tut of CorttoortfK 



When Eva, the gentle one, eame, 



And Sat down in my ample shade ; 

 And with her was that noble Thane, 



The lov'd one of the Saxon maid ; 



I call'd to the rustling breeze, 

 That my boughs might their homage pay ; 



While the joyous birds sang from the trees, 

 And the soaring lark warbled his lay. M. R. 



THE great Chesnut of Tortworth stood where now it 

 stands, far back as the reign of John, at which period it 

 bore the name that still distinguishes it among trees of 

 the same species. It was then in all its grandeur and 

 luxuriance, and its noble branches cast a deep and 

 lengthened shade upon the waste beneath, for grass 

 and flowers do not readily vegetate under the shadow of 

 the chesnut. But the deer of the forest resorted thither to 

 feed on the nuts, when shaken from the boughs by autumn 

 winds; thither, also, troops of wild hogs, which the 

 Saxons used to pasture in the woods, would gather beside 

 the tree, and listen for the dropping of the kernels that 

 fell in their ripeness to the ground. 



