296 SYLVAN SKETCHES. 



" Thou, too, great father of the British floods, 

 With joyful pride survey 'st our lofty woods, 

 Where towering oaks their growing honours rear, 

 And future navies on thy shores appear." 



Again, he says 



" Let India boast her plants, nor envy we 

 The weeping amber, and the balmy tree, 

 While by our oaks the precious loads are borne, 

 And realms commanded which those trees adorn/' 



Windsor Forest. 



This king of trees has been described by some of our 

 finest poets : 



" And to a pleasant grove I gan passe, 

 Xong er the bright sunne uprisen was : 



In which were okes great, streight as a line, 

 Under the which the grasse so fresh e of hew, 

 Was newly sprong, and an eight foot or nine 

 Every tree well fro his fellow grew, 

 With branches brode, laden with leves new, 

 That sprongen out agen the sunne-shene, 

 Some very red, and some a glad light green." 



CHAUCER. 



Shakespeare, who ever says a great deal in a few words, 

 has told us how the melancholy Jacques lay along 



" Under an oak, whose antique root peeps out 

 Upon the brook that brawls along this wood." 



In a future scene he sends Oliver to give us the re- 

 mainder of the tree : 



" And, mark what object did present itself! 

 Under an oak, whose boughs were mossed with age, 

 And high top bald with dry antiquity, 



