NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS. 231 
scientific precision of Selby, and the topographical and historical 
lore of Wise, which lend so much charm to the works of these 
writers. 
Lest, however, we may be thought to do an injustice to 
Mr. Heath’s descriptive powers, we will select an extract which 
will not only afford a good illustration of the author’s style, but 
will furnish the reader with the route of one of the most beautiful 
rides or walks to be found within easy reach of the metropolis :— 
“The ‘green ride’ commences at the southern end of Epping Forest, 
and proceeds, in a direction which may be generally described as northerly, 
to the northern end, within the parish of Epping, winding and turning, 
during its course, in an easterly and a westerly direction. An opening 
to it is provided at Forest Gate, by an avenue of chestnuts. Thence it 
proceeds, taking a westerly course, over the level expanse of Wanstead 
Flats—covered with grass and heather, brake and stunted shrubs—and 
continues into the beautiful lime-tree avenues of Bushwood, having on each 
side, away to the right and to the left, forest glades of oak and beech, birch 
and poplar, over the green turf being scattered clumps of hawthorn and 
blackberry, with shrubs of holly and hornbeam. ‘Taking, within the lime- 
tree avenues, a turn to the left, the ride makes a dip into the forest, 
passing between two beautiful chestnuts,—trees with enormous limbs 
rising from noble trunks, and having on each side, as it enters, forest- 
hollows, with water fringed by blackberry and clustering brake, and 
margined by oak and poplar, with their trembling leaves glinting in the 
sunlight. Beyond the wood, where the railway has cut the forest, the 
ride crosses the railway-bridge, and, in a northerly direction, plunges again 
into woodland, across turf, through scattered oak and birch, and by forest 
pools. Thence, on through the long expanse of Gilbert’s Glade, margined 
by oak and hornbeam, beech aud birch, with underwood of forest growth. 
On still through the Manor of Higham Hills, across an undulating ‘ drift’ 
where oak, elm, and beech contrast their varying foliage, passing by the 
west of Sale Wood, and across the road from Woodford to Chingford Hatch 
into the ‘Lops,’ a sparsely wood-covered piece of forest, with oak and 
beech and scattered holly. 
“The ride, running northerly, now leads through the undulating surface 
of Chingford drift, with its fine trees, and passes by the level margin of 
the Ching—the brook which gave its name to Chingford—continuing on 
by the large reed pond, under the wide-extending arms of goodly oaks, 
and through forest glades; rising, as it proceeds, until Elizabeth’s Lodge 
is reached, on the summit of an upland, from which a beautiful woodland 
view is obtained. Leaving Elizabeth’s Lodge, the ride leads across a tract 
of open forest, to the east of the Great Hawk Wood. Thence on, along 
