62 THE GAMEKEEPER AT HOME. 



of ancient days, who had done the king some great service 

 was rewarded with a broad tract of land which he was to 

 hold for three crops. He sowed acorns, and thus secured 

 himself and descendants a tenure of almost 3000 years, at 

 least, according to Dryden : — 



The monarch oak, the patriarch of trees, 

 Shoots, rising up, and spreads by slow degrees ; 

 Three centuries he grows, and three he stays 

 Supreme in state, and in three more decays. 



The keeper wishes he had such an opportunity. The 

 knight, in his idea, reached the acme of wisdom with his 

 three crops of nearly a thousand years each. 



His own kingdom may be said to begin with the park, 

 and the land ' in demesne,' to quote the quaint language of 

 the Domesday Book : a record not without its value as an 

 outline picture of English scenery eight centuries ago ; 

 telling us that near this village was a wood, near that a 

 stretch of meadow and a mill, here again arable land and 

 corn waving in the breeze, and everywhere the park and 

 domain of the feudal lords. The beauty of the park con- 

 sists in its ' breadth ' as an artist would say — the meadows 

 with their green frames of hedges are cabinet pictures, 

 lovely, but small ; this is life size, a broad cartoon from the 

 hand of Nature. The sward rises and rolls along in un- 

 dulations like the slow heave of an ocean wave. Besides 

 the elms there is a noble avenue of limes, and great oaks 



