94 VOICES FKOM THE WOODLANDS. 



sure enough, and full of adders as can be," said Farmer 

 Hanniford to Mrs. Bray, the historian of Dartmoor, when 

 he assisted her to climb the pathway to Wistman's "Wood. 

 But, though stunted in their growth, and covered with ivy, 

 turning, too, from the winds that continually assail them, 

 the old oaks are by no means without foliage ; their leaves 

 are of the usual size, but the acorns that cover them in 

 autumn are very minute. 



Thus, then, stands Wistman's Wood, alone in its deso- 

 lation, with its dwarf and misshapen trees, upheld amidst 

 the rudest storms, and on one of the wildest spots in 

 Dartmoor; a relic of the great forest that anciently 

 covered many of its glens and eminences, and which is 

 conjectured to have been set on fire in order to displace 

 the wolves that used to harbour within its covert. But 

 the haunting birds, the birds of omen, that were held 

 sacred in the estimation of the Druids, still linger around 

 the relics of that ancient wood. 



Those trees can tell in the ear of reason strange histories 



