WINDSOR PARK. 95 



One of the best known places in Windsor Park is 

 the Long Walk, which stretches some three miles in a 

 straight line from Windsor Castle. It is a fine sight, not- 

 withstanding its straightness. It is lined by dark rows 

 of giant elms, which, though forced into such formal 

 arrangement, have been allowed freely to grow in their 

 own way, aad it is pleasant to turn occasionally into the 

 aisle-like side-walks, and look up at the green roof of 

 trellis work formed by the interlacing boughs. A walk of 

 two miles brings us to a handsome pair of lodge gates 

 through which we pass into the Great Park, and the place 

 is changed as if by magic. We are in a vast solitude of 

 grassy mounds and giant trees in all their native lux- 

 uriance, spreading as far as the eye can reach ; the stillness 

 would be appalling but for the clamour of a million birds. 

 One of the adornments of the Park is Virginian Water 

 — a large lake, the extent of which alone is sxifificient to do 

 away with all ideas of its artificial origin. This is coin- 

 pletely enclosed by densely- wooded acclivities, rising almost 

 from the water's edge, one above the other, in agreeable 

 perspective, so as to exclude the slightest glimpse of the 

 world beyond. On one side of the lake, a broad pathway 

 of dark-green grass, yielding like a rich Turkey carpet to 

 the tread, extends from one end of the lake to the other. 

 Immediately on the left the shelving woods begin to rise. 

 There is not a sound to be heard except a gentle murmur 

 of the trees, that never ceases. 



The following account of Windsor Forest and Park 

 is given in the Journal of Forestry, vol. i., p. 708 : — 

 " Until its enclosure in 1817, Windsor Forest was an open 

 common, on which the crown and several subjects enjoyed 

 mutual rights. The period when the park was fenced off 

 from the common ground has not been ascertained. Nor- 

 den's map of 1607 shows the boundaries, and Sir William 

 Cecil was petitioned in 1568 to allow two French glass- 

 makers the privilege of cutting wood and burning char- 

 coal in ' Windsor Great Park.' About the same date an 



