Wood side. 59 



looming in sight, but not attractive, except for the beauty 

 of its natural surroundings. Lovely green sward, mighty 

 trees, deliciously scented blossoms, acres of young bracken 

 fronds in which the deer love to roam and hide, are all 

 around. Yonder is a small herd of deer, with a few young 

 fawns gambolling about. Ah ! they spy us out, and off 

 they amble into the bracken, and are soon hidden among the 

 lovely trees and young fronds. 



What magnificent oaks are some of these we pass ! The 

 light still shimmers in golden drops between the lovely pale- 

 tinted greenery of the early foliage. The dense dark leafage 

 of summer, which gives such grateful shade in the hottest 

 part of the year, is not yet formed ; everything as yet tells 

 of spring. The tiny young plants growing in millions from 

 the kindly earth which has embosomed them during the 

 darksome days of winter ; the pale vernal foliage in all its 

 bright young beauty; the delicious perfume of the blossom- 

 ing trees ; the sunlight dropping between the leaves in waves 

 of dancing mellowed light ; even the perfume of the earth 

 itself; all make one feel that a re-awakening has come, and 

 in spite of the outward signs of approaching age, man him- 

 self feels young again. 



But to return to the grand old trees, of which the poet 

 sings 



" Three centuries he grows, and three he stays 

 Supreme in state, and in three more decays." 



And is not this majestic monarch of the forest " sole king 

 of forests all," as the poet calls it the natural emblem of, 

 the sturdiness and manhood of our own nation? What 

 historical associations of our dear old island home cluster 

 round its memory! As we gaze at the oldest of these mighty 



