undergrowth, and the noble trees with their smooth ash-coloured stems
can be seen in perfection, giving a cathedral aisle effect, which is
erroneously said to have suggested the massive columns and groined
roofs of Gothic architecture.

"Where thro' the long-drawn aisle and fretted vault,
The pealing anthem swells the note of praise."

There is, too, an unearthly effect at times to be seen beneath them,
so exaggerated as to remind one of the stage setting of a pastoral
play, with all the enhancing artificial contrivance of light and
shade. It is to be seen only on a brilliantly sunny day, where the
contour of the space around the stem and below the branches takes the
form of an arched cavern, flooded by a single shaft of sunlight,
piercing the foliage at one particular spot, lighting up the floor
carpeted with last year's red-brown leaves, and emphasizing the gloom
of the walls and roof. Imagination instantly supplies the players, for
a more perfect setting for Rosalind and Celia, Orlando and the
melancholy Jaques, it would be impossible to conceive. It is said that
the ancient Greeks could see with their ears and hear with their eyes,
a privilege doubtless granted to the nature lover in all ages. In the
Forest some of the most ancient and remarkable trees have borne for
generations descriptive names such as the King and Queen oaks at
Boldrewood, and the Eagle oak in Knightwood. The communion between
human and tree life is well illustrated by a passage from Thoreau's
_Walden_: "I frequently tramped eight or ten miles through the deepest
snow to keep an appointment with a beech tree, or a yellow birch, or
an old acquaintance among the pines."

At Aldington a most valuable tree was the willow, or "withy," as it is
called in Worcestershire, though in Hampshire the latter name is given
to the Goat willow, or sallow ("sally," in Worcestershire), bearing
the pretty blossoms known as palms, which in former times were worn by
men and boys in country places on Palm Sunday. My brooks were bordered
on both sides by pollard withies, the whole being divided into seven
parts or annual cuts, so that, as they are lopped every seven years a
cut came in for lopping each year. They were then well furnished with
long and heavy poles, which were severed close to the head of the
pollard with a sharp axe. When on the ground, the brushwood was cut
off and tied into "kids" (faggots) for fire-lighting, the poles being
made into hu