CHAPTER IV 

 In the Beechwoods 



APPARENTLY it is not every lover of nature 

 who can appreciate to the full the charm of 

 the beechwoods. In single specimens the beech 

 (Fagus sylvatica) does not appeal to the poet in 

 anything like the same degree as the oak. It 

 has none of the sublime qualities of majesty 

 and of endurance for many centuries against 

 the destroying tooth of time. And yet, to the 

 forester, few sylvan scenes can equal in quiet 

 loveliness the dense beechwoods, thickly carpeted 

 with fallen leaves, in which stately, smooth-barked, 

 ashen-grey stems rise upwards in support of a 



