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sell's Lodge in Richmond Park. I have also seen some noble ones at Knowle near Sevenoaks in Kent.

Perhaps one of the most remarkable Beech-trees is, or rather was, standing at Chantilly in France. It is mentioned by Arthur Young in his Travels. Its trunk was perfectly straight, and from eighty to ninety feet high, forty feet to the first branch, and twelve feet in diameter, or thirty-six feet in circumference at five feet from the ground. I have not been able to ascertain whether this tree still exists.

There is perhaps no part of England in which Beeches are seen in such numbers as to size and picturesque appearance as at Burnham in Buckinghamshire. Many of them have most distorted shapes from having been pollarded centuries ago. Their roots are bold, and rise out of the ground like the arms of a Cyclops, covered with pretty mosses and fungi. The whole scenery in the Burnham wood is charming, for the venerable Beeches are surrounded with hollies, junipers and heath, with an occasional mixture of furze and broom. Gray, the poet, delighted in the shade of these trees, and has immortalized them in his verse.

Forest Scenery is, perhaps, better adapted than any other for the contemplation of the works of Nature. There we may with least disturbance study those objects, which are generally far removed from the · haunts of men. We learn to cherish those gentle thoughts, which endear many a woodland walk, and afford delightful associations as we stroll through a

sequestered nook, a "bushy dell," or by a "bosky bourn." We may then exclain in the beautiful language of Milton

I know each land, and every alley green,
Dingle, or bushy dell, of this wild wood,

And every bosky bourn from side to side.

In the spring and summer months, every field is a scene of beauty, full of enjoyment. Every copse or hedge-row is redolent of sweets. A lesson full of meaning is then conveyed to us with touching simplicity, proclaiming gently, but irresistibly, and in cheerfulness and peace, the superintendence of a kind and benevolent Providence. The loveliest images are presented to our imagination, whether it be a flock of sheep watched over by their shepherd-a brood of chickens fostered under the wing of their mother, or flowers clothed in beauty by their Great Creator. When we reflect, also, how bountifully the means of occupation and happiness are spread before us, and how cheaply some of our truest pleasures may be purchased, we may learn to be thankful for such a lavish dispensation of blessings. We may then feel that even the most lowly things are not insignificant, and that Nature is. everywhere pregnant with the best kind of instruction.

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1 shall always reflect with pleasure on the interesting rides I had some time since with an intelligent friend and naturalist, in the more retired parts of

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WINDSOR PARK.

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Windsor Great Park and Forest. The gentle rains had invigorated the earth — every thing had just burst into freshness and beauty-the birds sang their joyous notes the Cuckoo was heard in every direction the green Woodpecker uttered its wild cry, and the Herons were making their silent gyrations over our heads, as we rode under the trees on which they were forming their nests. An enormous Beechtree spread its widely extended branches, which were clothed with their early and glittering leaves, while the sight of some sturdy old oak pollards, covered with ivy, from which

The stock-dove only through the forest cooes,

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verdant hollies, and here and there a wild cherry tree, with its silvery blossoms, added to the charm of the scenery. Sometimes a rabbit, a hare, or a pheasant would run for shelter amongst the fern a herd of deer might be seen reposing in some sequestered dell, or a group of cattle indolently standing in the shallow water of a pond.

In one of these rides we were engaged in contemplating, with that delight which a lover of nature alone can experience, such a spot near the Sandpit gate, when our attention was called to the hoarse croaking of a pair of Ravens, who were apparently endeavouring to take possession of one of the nests of the Herons that built on the tops of the trees, which, in this part of the Park, far exceed in height any I have met with elsewhere. The

Heron defended its nest with great courage, uttering shrill and distressed cries; and, after the battle had lasted some length of time, the Ravens were beaten off.

This Herony is a noble appendage to the Park, and any Monarch might well be proud of it, as well as of the trees on which the nests are built. As there are not more than eleven or twelve Heronries left in this country, it is to be hoped that every care will be taken of the one referred to. Severe penalties were formerly imposed on any person killing a Heron, and I believe that the laws enacting them have not been repealed; yet we now find Herons amongst the trophies nailed by keepers upon some stunted oak tree, in the midst of magpies, jays, owls and polecats, although the damage they do to fish-ponds is comparatively trifling, feeding, as they chiefly do, upon frogs, snails, water-rats and small eels. In the breeding season, when they have to provide for their ravenous young, they may attack the larger sort of fish, but the interest which must always be attached to this royal bird, connected as it is with the chivalry and ancient sports of this country, ought to be sufficient to protect it from wanton destruction, independently of its own wild and picturesque character.

In order to ascertain, as far as we were able, the extent of destruction committed by these persecuted birds in the breeding season, my companion, whose thirst for information on subjects connected with Natural History is of no ordinary degree, procured a

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young Heron about two-thirds grown, which had fallen from the nest and been killed. On dissecting it, the stomach was found very large and much distended. It contained fish bones, one fish-probably, from its appearance, a roach-half digested, and eight inches and a quarter in a length. There were also pellets of hair an inch and a quarter long-apparently the hair of the field mouse the scales of the common snake, (natrix torquata) and the bones of the frog. On the ground, under a Heron's nest, we found a pellet of hair about as big as a hen's egg, and having exactly the microscopical character and general appearance of the hair of the water-rat (arvicola amphibia). After searching repeatedly under the dif ferent nests, we were never able to discover any rejected particles of fish or even of fish bones. The pellets of hair were frequent.

It is evident from the above facts that the food of the Heron is not confined to fish; and, therefore, that the depredations it is supposed to commit in fishponds, are not so extensive as has been asserted. It may be remarked that from the comparatively small size of a Heron's nest, the young, when about half grown, are constantly falling out of it, and thus many perish. A visit to the Heronshaw,* for so it was anciently called, in Windsor Great Park will amply repay the trouble of going thither, if rambling in this

* The Heron-shaw originally signified the wood or coppice where the Herons built; hence it was transferred to the bird

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