EXPULSION OF THE BOOKS 83 



finest trees on the north side of the gardens 

 were blown down by the winds, among them the 

 noblest tree in London — the great beech on the 

 east side of the wide vacant space where the 

 grove had stood. The rooks, too, went away, 

 as they had gone before from Greenwich Park, 

 and as in a period of seventeen years thej' have 

 not succeeded in establishing a new rookery, we 

 may now regard them as lost for ever. 



Seventeen years ! Some may say that this is 

 going too far back ; that in these fast-moving 

 times, crowded with historically important events, 

 it is hardly worth while in 1898 to recall the fact 

 that in 1880 a grove of seven hundred trees was 

 cut down in Kensington Gardens for no reason 

 whatever, or for a reason which would not be 

 taken seriously by any person in any degree 

 removed from the condition of imbecility ! 



To the nation at large the destruction of this 

 grove may not have been an important event, 

 but to the millions inhabiting the metropolis, 

 who in a sense form a nation in themselves, it 

 was exceedingly important, immeasurably more 

 so than most of the events recorded each year 

 in the ' Annual Eegister.' 



It must be borne in mind that to ^ vast 



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