Raven. 229 



seen before : there must have been in it ten or eleven hundred- 

 weight of wood. I was sadly vexed at the fall of the tree and at 

 losing the Ravens ; for now they only occasionally show them- 

 selves in the park, and I have not heard of a nest since the tree 

 fell. They used to sit on the tops of the high trees in Allengrove 

 Bottom, and bark like dogs, which caused the park-keepers' dogs 

 to bark in response.' This Raven -tree of which the Duke 

 speaks was within, but only just within, the county of 

 Gloucester; the park fence dividing the park from Allengrove 

 being the boundary between the two counties. I will only add 

 that I would that the admirable sentence which the Duke passed 

 on the ruthless keeper was printed in letters of gold on the 

 market cross at Devizes, as a hint to other landowners, and a 

 timely warning to other keepers similarly disposed. 



Corslam Court. I learn from Lord Methuen that there are no 

 Ravens now on his estate here, or in the immediate neighbour- 

 hood ; but they did build regularly in the north avenue some 

 twenty years ago, but were destroyed by a keeper during Lord 

 Methuen's absence from home. 



Spye Park. There was a Raven-tree, a Scotch fir, in the fine 

 old park here, with which in old times I was very familiar, and 

 which had been tenanted by the sable occupiers time out of 

 mind, until Mr. Starkey sold the property to Mr. Spicer, and 

 then, by a strange coincidence, and as if to verify the old super- 

 stition, the Ravens deserted Spye Park altogether. Still more 

 remarkable was the coincidence related to me more than once 

 by Mr. Charles Wyndham, that some years after the sale had 

 been completed, when the late owner, Mr. Baynton Starkey, 

 happened to be staying with my informant at Wans House, as 

 he and his host walked out in the garden after breakfast, a croak 

 was heard above their heads, and there, sure enough, were the 

 Ravens, come back as if to greet their old master, and seen then 

 for the first time since their departure by Mr. C. Wyndham, who 

 is too keen an observer to have overlooked their presence, if 

 they had visited him before. This is so pretty a tale, and 

 so thoroughly in keeping with the romances about birds of the 



