180 VOICES FROM THE WOODLANDS. 



" The chequered earth seems restless as a flood 

 Brushed by the wind. So sportive is the light 

 Shot through the boughs : it dances as they dance, 

 Shadow and sunshine intermingling quick, 

 And darkening and enlightening as the leaves 

 Play wanton, every moment, every spot." 



Cowper. 



Thus sang the poet, mindful of the many causes which 

 combine to produce a twofold purpose, that of refreshing 

 the weary traveller, and heightening the effect of woodland 

 scenery. 



Men in old times made strong bows from the common elm, 

 when yew was scarce, as also arrows, before the use of fire-arms 

 superseded the arrowy sleet of Britain. This appropriation 

 may probably account for the frequency of elms on village 

 greens, of which the Crawley elm, growing beside the road 

 from Brighton to London, furnishes a familiar instance ; 

 and thus beautifully has an historian of forest-trees spoken 

 concerning it : 



" This aged tree, in former ages, might have offered a 

 retreat to some white-robed Druid within its capacious 



