TREES AND TREES. 108 
delight that could hardly be explained. It became evi- 
dent at last that these groves and pastures must be the 
residence of the rural deities, who by their invisible 
presence inspired every heart with those delightful sen- 
timents which, though not entirely unfelt on earth, are 
well known in paradise. It was the presence of these 
deities that yielded the place its mysterious charm. It 
was the naiad who gave romantic melody to the foun- 
tain that bubbled up from the mossy glen in the hill- 
side, and spread the hue of beauty over the solitary lake 
in the valley; and the dryads, or wood nymphs, that 
caused these woodland arbors to rival the green retreats 
of Elysium.” 
In England, almost alone of the older settled coun- 
tries, large areas of woods remain, the prominent feat- 
ures in the fair landscape scenery. There, not only the 
forests, but many of the individual trees are intimately 
. associated with the history of the past as they are with 
the myths and legends of the country. How many 
clannish feuds and kingly quarrels have the dryads of 
these gnarled and patriarchal old trees witnessed, some 
of them reaching back into the distant centuries. The 
ancestral tree is as much an object of interest as the cot- 
tage or old manor hall that it shadows, and is equally a 
sharer in the owner’s regard. Among these are the 
- Great Oak, Major Oak, Oak of Parliament, the’ Swilcar 
Oak of Needwood upwards of six hundred years" old, 
and the Royal Oak, in which Charles II. secreted him- 
self after his defeat at Worcester. The Spread Oak of 
Thoresby is a woods in itself, and would give shelter to 
