174 ID ftrm in 



Shook to the roots the infant oak, which after 

 Tempests moved not. Time hollow'd in its trunk 

 A tomb for centuries ; and buried there 

 The epochs of the rise and fall of states, 

 The fading generations of the world, 

 The memory of man." 



HYDE PARK was covered in ancient times with a dense 

 growth of tall trees and underwood, which extending 

 from sea to sea, shaded a large portion of the states of 

 the Iceni and Trinobantes, the Cantii and the Regni. 

 But the aspect of external nature has changed since ; 

 instead of noble trees and all the varied undulations of 

 innumerable boughs, now gently waving in the breeze of 

 summer, and now furiously wrought upon by the 

 northern blast, great London has arisen where all was 

 wood and swamp, and on the space which still retains 

 somewhat of the character that once it bore, are all the 

 accompaniments of a modern park. Clumps of trees, 

 arranged by the hand of taste, flowering shrubs, and 

 beautifully tufted groves, delight the eye with their 

 beauty or their fragrance ; walks and carnage -drives, lead 

 among them, and through that portion, which bears 

 especially the name of park, winds a gentle river, which 

 reflects on its mirror-like waters, green sloping banks, 

 where cattle graze. 



An aged tree grows on the right hand of the road, 

 beside the river, with its trunk devoid of bark, and cracked 

 in all directions, the effect of long exposure to the wea- 

 ther. Its bare and skeleton-looking branches are also 



