182 VOICES FROM THE WOODLANDS. 



know the parental cottage when deprived of the shadowing 

 branches which he had seen wave even in his cradle." 



A forest, spreading over hill and plain, now stooping into 

 valleys, and now climbing precipitous ascents, and then 

 away into the far country, is one of the grandest sights in 

 creation; an insulated tree one of the most beautiful. 

 He who looks upon an aged tree, in the deep recesses 

 of a lonely forest, with younger trees grouping round, 

 regards it with an indescribable feeling of reverence ; but 

 he who has seen the tree of his own hamlet from infancy 

 to manhood, feels towards it a degree of tenderness differ- 

 ent it may be in degree, yet not in kind, from that which 

 rests on a benefactor. 



Yet many such trees have fallen before the rage of modern 

 improvements. Tor the value of timber is its misfortune, 

 as wrote Gilpin ; but the hands that fell an oak can plant 

 an acorn, and this restitution to maternal earth is surely 

 due from those who despoil her of her noblest and most 

 ancient ornaments. Sir Robert Walpole planted with his 



