6 THE OAK. 



led to its being felled, and the country was 

 denuded of it in almost every part of Eng- 

 land, and ours among the rest. The high 

 price of oak and of its bark likewise led to 

 its doom many a noble wood, as I well know 

 and remember, of which I have made note in 

 another place ; and I would fondly hope, that 

 before I take my final departure, I may see 

 some preparatory measures commenced at 

 least for renewing these woodland sites with 

 a rising generation of Porest Timber. 



The steeps on both sides the Goit, from 

 Goit Bridge to Whaley, were once filled with 

 heavy oak timber, the sale of which, along 

 with other timber, returned to the purchaser 

 of the Taxal estate and his next successor, 

 the full amount of the price paid for the 

 whole estate by Mr. Foster Bower to Mr. 

 Dickenson ; the price being £18,000, as I was 

 informed by my late venerable and respected 

 friend, John Philip's, Esq., of Bank Hall, near 

 Stockport, the grandfather of Francis Aspinal 



