64 
NATURE NOTES 
a conspicuous part of the undergrowth, but in many places 
stands alone as a fine “ specimen ’’ tree. The Corporation have 
had the advantage of the experienced advice of Mr. H. J. Veitch, 
who resides in the neighbourhood, and we were informed that it 
was on that advice that one good-sized beech had been removed 
that interfered with an old oak, with a large holly beneath it, 
near the lower end of the Middle Pond. Such cases call for the 
exercise of much thought, and are subjects on which expert 
opinion may well differ. 
Between the Elephant Tree and Middle Pond there has been 
a good deal of thinning, mainly to give room to some young 
shapely oaks that promise, thanks to this care, to develop into 
fine trees ; but in no part of the woodland has a quantity of 
beech or oak been cut, nor is there any need to fear the exter- 
mination of the birch. Possibly some critics have mistaken the 
considerable area of private beech-wood, managed on purely 
commercial lines, which runs into the heart of the public wood- 
land and is only separated from it by an earthen dyke, for part of 
the area under the control of the Corporation. On this area a 
good deal of fine beech has been recently felled. 
We noticed that there is on the whole a better supply of 
promising young oaks than of sapling beeches, so that these 
latter should be most carefully tended, and, if planting is to 
be carried on, this species should be preferred, though a few 
additional yews — there is only one, I think, at present — would 
lend a pleasing and thoroughly English variety. On the other 
hand, the rhododendrons, which were planted before the Corpo- 
ration came into possession, seem lamentably out of place, and 
serve only to entail additional anxiety upon the keepers when 
they are in blossom, this blossom, holly when in berry, and moss 
being the chief subjects liable to depredations. 
From what I saw it was difficult to believe the statement that 
“ all the charming brushwood and undergrowth is being cleared 
away with the trees.” I was assured that this was not so, and 
I certainly saw ample cover remaining for any possible supply 
of birds or insects. Undoubtedly any such removal of under- 
growth not interfering with the large trees would be a most 
mistaken policy. On the other hand, it is difficult to imagine 
that any one who has visited the spot can suggest, as some have 
done, that the clearing has been such as to expose the old trees 
to any great danger from wind. Only in one place could such a 
suggestion be in the least maintained, in the case, that is, of the 
large beech first mentioned, near the head of the Upper Pond. 
On some of the open spaces commemorative trees have been 
planted by members of the Corporation. These have been — 
perhaps unnecessarily, in the absence of deer or cattle — 
elaborately protected by ironwork and somewhat cockneyishly 
labelled with iron inscriptions. Still more obtrusive, and, 
perhaps, equally unnecessary, are the large iron name-plates 
to the various “drives.” Some of these last lead to the private 
