CARPE DIEM 185 



yard, musical with rooks and sweet with the spring 

 fragrance, and so on to Oswald's Well. Under a 

 tree at this spot King Oswald fell in battle, and out 

 of the ground afterward sprang water, said to be 

 endowed with healing power. The well is neatly 

 arched over with stone, and has an effigy of King 

 Oswald at the back ; but the latter offered too 

 good a mark for the stones of the grammar-school 

 lads to remain undefaced. Oswaldestree is now 

 corrupted into Oswestry, or more commonly among 

 the country people, Hogestry or Osistry. Just 

 above the well is the present battle-ground, where 

 affairs of honour among the schoolboys are, or used 

 to be, settled by an appeal to fisticuffs. 



Crossing Llanvorda Park we enter Craigvorda 

 woods, at once the most beautiful and picturesque 

 of the many similar woods on the borders. The 

 ground is mossy underfoot, the trees meet overhead, 

 glossy green ferns pave the noble corridors, which 

 have for pillars straight and sturdy firs and larch, 

 and for a roof the heavy foliage of interwoven 

 sycamore and oak. At intervals the chestnut too 

 lifts its gigantic nosegay of pink and white and 

 yellow flower-spikes, and near it, out of some 

 craggy knoll, the " lady of the forest," the silver 

 birch, bends tenderly over the masses of blue hya- 

 cinths below. " The shade is silent and dark and 



