day; long phosphorescent caterpillars and
centipedes crawled out of every corner, leaving a trail of light behind
them, while fire-flies darted about above like a lower firmament."[25]

Woods and Forests were to our ancestors the special scenes of
enchantment.

The great Ash tree Yggdrasil bound together Heaven, Earth, and Hell. Its
top reached to Heaven, its branches covered the Earth, and the roots
penetrated into Hell. The three Normas or Fates sat under it, spinning
the thread of life.

Of all the gods and goddesses of classical mythology or our own
folk-lore, none were more fascinating than the Nature Spirits--Elves and
Fairies, Neckans and Kelpies, Pixies and Ouphes, Mermaids, Undines,
Water Spirits, and all the Elfin world

Which have their haunts in dale and piny mountain,
Or forests, by slow stream or tingling brook.

They come out, as we are told, especially on moonlight nights. But while
evening thus clothes many a scene with poetry, forests are fairy land
all day long.

Almost any wood contains many and many a spot well suited for Fairy
feasts; where one might most expect to find Titania, resting, as once we
are told,

She lay upon a bank, the favourite haunt
Of the Spring wind in its first sunshine hour,
For the luxuriant strawberry blossoms spread
Like a snow shower then, and violets
Bowed down their purple vases of perfume
About her pillow,--linked in a gay band
Floated fantastic shapes; these were her guards,
Her lithe and rainbow elves.

The fairies have disappeared, and, so far as England is concerned, the
larger forest animals have vanished almost as completely. The Elk and
Bear, the Boar and Wolf have gone, the Stag has nearly disappeared, and
but a scanty remnant of the original wild Cattle linger on at
Chillingham. Still the woods teem with life; the Fox and Badger, Stoat
and Weasel, Hare and Rabbit, and Hedgehog,

The tawny squirrel vaulting through the boughs,
Hawk, buzzard, jay, the mavis and the merle,[26]

the Owls and Nightjar, the Woodpecker, Nuthatch, Magpie, Doves, and a
hundred more.

In early spring the woods are bright with the feathery catkins of the
Willow, followed by the soft green of the Beech, the white or pink
flowers of the Thorn, the pyramids of the Horse-chestnut, festoons of
the Laburnum and Acacia, and the Oak slowly wakes from its winter sleep,
while the Ash leaves long linger in their black buds.

Under fo