184 0fo m* in 



where, but a few years before, was a dense growth of 

 underwood, with high trees that cast their lengthened 

 shadows on the ground. Gradually the city enlarged her 

 bounds, and those groups of houses which had been called 

 villages, and which stood in the midst of pleasant fields, 

 well-watered and reclaimed from the forest, were reached 

 by lines of streets, and so encroaching were they, that it 

 was thought advisable to retain some portion of the 

 ancient forest as a royal park, both for exercise and 

 ornament. If the trees of the forest could have spoken, 

 they would have rejoiced at this, but none more than the 

 old trees, my own memorial trees, these relics of past 

 ages; though now beginning to decay, long tufts of 

 lichens having struck their roots into the rough bark, and 

 many of their noblest branches having been long since 

 broken by fierce winds, or rovers of the forest. They 

 nearly stood alone, for very few remained of those which 

 had grown here, when all around was one wide forest, 

 one intermingling of shadowing boughs from sea to sea, 

 or spaces of waste land, untilled and tenantless. The 

 old Roman road, which had been raised with so much 

 cost and care, soon fell to decay ; its materials were car- 

 ried off, and the green sward rapidly extended over that 

 portion of it which passed through Hyde Park and St. 

 James's Park. Those who like to tread where the Romans 

 trod, may yet walk on a small portion of their ancient 

 route, in the public road leading to Westminster Abbey, 

 on the side nearest the turnpike. 



