The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1853-11-10
CHAP. / Continued.

CHAP. L Continued.
And here let none imagine these to be mere
exaggeraton, sprung from the overfiowing
brain of the Romancer-for, not fifty miles dis
tant from the scene described above there il
yet to be seen venerable patriarch of Sher-
wood which boosted yet, within a few short
years, some garlands Of surviving green-the
oak Of Cowthorpe-probably the largest in the
island which is to this day the boundary cor.
ner of two marching properties, and has been
such since it was constituted so in Domesdsy
Book, wherein it is styled guercum ingentum
the gigantic oak
Since the writing of those words eight cen.
turtles have passed. and there are many rea'
sons for believing that those centuries have
added not an inch TO its circumference, but
rather dotracted from it's vigor and its growth
and to me it seems far more probable that it
was full-grown tree, with all its leafy honOrs
rife upon IT, when the first Caesar plunged
wal deep into the surges of the British Chan
mel from the first Roman PROV, than that it
should have sprung up like the gourd of a
Jonah, IN single night to endure thousand
years decay without entirely perishing.
In those days, however, man might ride
from "eve to morn, from morn to dewy eve"
and hear no sound more humsn than the deep
beng" of the red deer, if it CHANGED to be
in the balmy month of June the angry grunt
Of the tusky boar, startled from his mud bath,
N some black morass or, it may be, the ire
mendOus rush Of the snow-white, black. NAMED
bull crashing bis way through shivered sap
hnss and rent under-b brush, mixed with the
hOarso wooings of the cushat dove the rich
song gushes of the merle and mavis, or the
laughing scream of the green woodpecker.
Happy if in riding all day in the green
leaiy twilight which never, at high noon, ad-
United one clear ray of daylight, and, long be-
lore the run was down, degenerated into murky
gloom he raw no sights more fearful than the
rabbits glancing across the path, and dlsap-
pearIng In the thickets or the slim doe, dain-
wy picking her way among the heather, with
l ner speckled fawns gambolling around her.
inrlce happy, If, ~ night was falling cold and
gray the tinklipg Of some lonely chapel bell
might give him note where some true anchor
tie would share his bed of fern and meal of
pulse and water or jolly clerk of Copman-
hurst would breach the pipe Of Malvoisie,
bring pasties Of the doe, to greet the belated
WaYiarer.
Such was the period, such the region, when,
On glorious July morning, so early that the
sun had not yet risen high enough to throw
one sweeping yellow ray over the carpet OF
thIck greensward between the long asles of the
"rest or chequer it with one cool shadow
While the dew still hung in diamonds on every
olade of grass, on every leaf Of bush or brack
ens; while the light-blue mists were still rising
thinner and thinner as they SCARED into the
GEAR air, from many a woodland pool or sleepy
SHeamlet, that two men Of the ancient Saxon
race lat watching, as if with some eager ex
pec'at'on, on a low, rounded grassy slope, the
outpost US it seemed, of chain Of gentle
H Hl, running down eastward to the beautiful
nrmiuh Idle
10 ground the knoll on which they sat, covered
sJ '''e snort messy turf and over-canopied by
r,os, N'p ga Ks such as they have been described
or a. mem lcafy and in their prime, but two
stsa b showing above their foliage the gray
bsaorhs OF age, the river, clear az glass and
n' Us silver, swept in semicircle, fringed
'a belt OF deep-green PUSHES and broad.
NS'e1 water lilies among which two or three
noble swans so quietly sat the watchers ON the
,.fow, we're leading forth their little dark .uray
osck-legged cyguets, to feed on the aonatc
les and insects, which dimpled the tranou;l
n'er ike falling shower. Across the stream,
was thrown a two a. ched freestone bridge
.'tNoacked and narrow, and half covered
S"n dense ivy, the work evidently of the Ro.
a unh conquerors Of the island, from which a
ssnow sandy road wound OBVIOUSLY upward
snung the foot Of the rounded hill, aud show
"seii IN two or three ascending curves at
intervals, above the tree-toTs, till il was
~ ~ The distant forest while far away to
"p eastward, the topmost turret Of what
bsnnu tall Norman keep, with square
h.. "sr dropping from its staff in the breeze
indaa lowering above the dim wood distance,
IL . we whittier i led no indirectly.
men; we rear Of the slope or knoll 30 often
eliza n' was deep tangled dell, or dingle,
and .h WIN thickset growth Of holly, birch
the. ''aer, with here a feathery juniper, and
graceful fern bush and behind this