202 VOICES FROM THE WOODLANDS. 



trees, which, in shady grandeur, form overarching canopies 

 of mingling boughs. 



A recent traveller relates, that having; penetrated that 

 extensive forest which covers the Yallombrosan Apennines 

 for nearly five miles, he came unexpectedly upon those 

 festive scenes which are not unfrequent among the chestnut 

 range. It was a holiday ; and a group of peasants, dressed 

 in the gay and picturesque attire of the neighbourhood of the 

 Arno, were dancing in an open and level space, covered 

 with smooth turf, and surrounded with magnificent chest- 

 nuts, while the inmost recesses of the forest resounded 

 with their mirth and minstrelsy. Some beat down the 

 chestnuts with sticks, and filled baskets with them, which 

 they replenished from time to time; others, stretched 

 listlessly upon the turf, picked out the contents of the 

 bristling capsules in which the kernels were intrenched, 

 for these, when newly gathered, are equally sweet and nutri- 

 tious; others again, and especially young peasant girls, 

 pelted their companions with the fruit. It was a joyous 



