132 OUR WOODLAND TREES. 
in the roadway strip stands a solitary Oak, just 
outside the manorial fence. And now a sudden 
coolness comes upon us as we enter under the 
arching foliage of two Oaks which stand on each 
side the way fronted by two Beeches, intermingling 
their topmost branches with those of the Oaks, 
and forming a canopy of quivering green. Here, 
under the small stretch of roadway extending for 
some thirty feet between the Oaks on one side 
and the Beeches on the other, flows our stream, 
passing away to the right in the shadows 
flung by the dense overgrowth of interwoven 
branches of other Trees. The sun is shining 
brightly overhead, and its golden rays piercing 
the leaf interstices in the canopy of green foliage 
far above, fall gently on the clustering shrubs 
that margin the stream-side, gilding the fronds of 
brake and lady fern, and sparkling from the twisted 
leaves of a Holly Tree, over whose prickly head 
hang drooping the graceful tendrils of a Honey- 
suckle. On the right stream-bank a curious 
sight meets our view. The whitened trunk of a 
Beech has grown so closely to the mossy bole of 
a gnarled and ancient Oak that the Trees appear 
