Chapter II: Part 2

Revered Swilcar![89] kingly Oak!
Ill spar’d from thee th’ assassin’s stroke.
How brilliant was thy sylvan court!
Of sons and subjects proud resort;
Here stately rang’d in close array;
There lightly group’d on carpets gay;
Attendant hollies glow’d beneath,
All arm’d; their crest a woodbine wreath.
In safety skipp’d the dappled herds;
Securely perch’d the choiring birds;
O’er charter’d ground thy broad shade spread;
In freedom wav’d thy sacred head,
Where age had whiten’d many a stem,
And plac’d an antler’d diadem.

Horrid!—I see thee far[90]—defac’d—
In fetters on a dreary waste,
With outstretch’d arms and bosom bare,
Appealing to the troubled air;
Yet taxing not the pelting storm;
But those, more cruel, who deform
Thy rich retreats, thy turf defile
With fence, and road, and uses vile;
Nor of the whole, which Nature gave,
Leave thee enough to make thy grave,
When comes, as come it must, thy fall,
_Lear_ of the Forest, robb’d of all!

Enough; and from my trembling hand
Drops the sad lyre.—Abused Land,
Take my last strains! in happier days
I tun’d my rude horn to thy praise;
And (all I wish’d) the friends I lov’d
Those unassuming notes approv’d;
And some, with strength beyond its own,[91]
In sweeter echoes cheer’d the tone;
To swell _this_ tear, which sorrow drew,
Do _they_ remain?—alas how few!

Swilcar! from thee a wither’d bough
Will best become my temples now.
And pendent here my shell I leave
Mournfully mute; save when, at eve,
While Silence lists on brooding wings,
Soft airs shall brush the murmuring strings:
So still be fond complaint preferr’d,
Its master’s voice no longer heard!

Then haply some, who wander near
Musing, may lend a partial ear;
And if thy venerable age,
And awful size their hearts engage,
If Nature’s wood-wild walks they love,
If violated grandeur move,
Ah, will not indignation rise,
As Fancy views with weeping eyes,
Nymphs, Satyrs, Fauns, in cheerless row,
And Dian with a broken bow;
Hears Druid’s groan and Dryad’s shriek
Oft through the moonlight stillness break,
Yon prison’d cliffs[92] their griefs repeat,
Dove howling hoarsely at their feet?

Region!—I lov’d thee at my heart—
Farewell!—for ever now we part.
Forest farewell!—delighted Time
Thee would have spar’d in endless prime;
Me, as he shakes my ebbing sands,
While MORTAL LIFE her roll expands,
Me, feebly bending o’er thy tomb,
He beckons to her COMMON HOME.—
Ah, human weakness! may a name,
Aspiring to no splendid fame,
Live, yet a little, in my SONGS
Of NEEDWOOD’S PRAISE and NEEDWOOD’S WRONGS!

MY GRAND CLIMACTERIC. 1802.

As one, who journeys over unknown lands,
Ere yet the sun withdraws his western ray,
Stops on some mountain’s brow, whose site commands
The shifting scenes and labyrinths of the way;

With fond reverted look his thoughts retrace,
Where flowers their sweets, and wild-birds gave their song,
And dwell, long dwell! on many a favourite space,
Where prodigal of time he loiter’d long;

Lovers and friends in bright perspective rise,
Companions of his morn, on yon blue hill;
Down that blank plain he drops a look, and sighs,
Whence seem their parting words to reach him still;

Here his pain’d eyes unkindly districts mark,
Where faint heats smote him or fierce storms o’ertook;
There strain o’er deep’ning woods at noonday dark,
Where his false steps their destin’d course forsook;

Pond’ring the change and chances of the day,
As warning eve prepares her veil to close,
Serious, he now proceeds with short survey,
Expecting night’s dark hour, and hoping calm repose:

So I look back on more than sixty years,
In life’s sequester’d walks obscurely spent,
Where tho’ its trophied head no column rears,
Inscrib’d with mighty deed, or proud event,

Yet, on some few small eminencies, glow
The heart’s rejoicing-lights of self-applause;
Some generous claims surmount the gloom below,
And shame and sharp regrets a moment pause;

Yet these prevail—ah! might my wish prevail
That Time would turn my near exhausted glass;
Then not a grain should of its harvest fail;—
Seeds are but sands when unimprov’d they pass.

Vain wish! vain promise! what dost thou presume,
O weak Humanity? thyself but dust!
Since from the cradle, hourly, to the tomb,
Toil, trifle, err and grieve, frail thing! thou must.

But pleasures, passions lose their dangerous force;
And the world’s business shrinks as age descends:
O spare Adversity! my evening course;
My little part is play’d, my small importance ends.

_To F. N. C. MUNDY, Esq._
ON HIS POEM
THE FALL OF NEEDWOOD.

Poet of Needwood, much my heart approves
This thy ow’d duty to his ravag’d groves,
The lost! the lovely! who in better days
View’d their each grace reflected in thy lays;
And O! when many a future Age has pass’d,
Rolling oblivious o’er his nameless Waste,
Its sometime beauties shall again revive,
And in thy pictur’d strains for EVER live.

Come, pensive listening, ye once jocund Throng,
Whilome that rov’d those forest-haunts along;
Explor’d, with pleasure brightening in your air,
Each coy, green labyrinth and each turfy lair,
Still, as in pride of youth, the wanton Spring
Expanded to the Sun her showery wing,
And cliffs, illustrious in their golden bloom,
Rose o’er the glades of light-besprinkled gloom.

Nor absent ye when Summer’s fervid Hours
Dropt more luxuriant curtains on the Bowers,
And the vast Oak’s writh’d arms of dusky green
Shadow’d the dappled Tenants of the Scene,
With rival Elm, whose mossy trunk appears
Out-numbering far the lonely Eagle’s years.

Nor when the Months consummate, left their vales
To Suns less ardent, less benignant gales,
And Autumn painted, with his tawny hand,
The shrinking foliage, and in colours bland
Streak’d the pale red with purple, faint and brief,
And tipt with tarnish’d gold each trembling leaf.

Nor e’en when Phœbus’ Steeds, no longer fleet,
With mane dishevel’d streaming to their feet,
Struggling thro’ clouds, th’ hybernal Solstice gain,
Their necks bedropt with globes of freezing rain,
And the loud Tyrant of the dying Year
Stript OTHER Groves, made OTHER Forests fear;
For Needwood to his sway disdain’d to yield;
His polish’d umbrage an unfailing shield,
Those numerous hollies on his breast and brow,
That thrust their scarlet clusters thro’ the snow,
Or spread their glossy leaves to transient rays
The rebel Glory of the icy days.

Nor if, ere yet arisen, dim Morning heard
Your lightheel’d Coursers paw the dewy swerd,
When the sly Prowler stole adown the wind,
And hop’d he left no tell-tale scent behind.
Vain hope! your swift staunch hounds the search began,
To right and left their hurrying numbers ran,
Till found the taint, in streaming files they hie,
And in one shrill, continuous, clamouring cry,
To which th’ accordant Forest joyous rings,
Hang on his rear, while o’er the vale he springs,
Dash through the rhimy glades, and round the hills
As when receiving tribute brooks and rills
O’er flinty bed a River foams and roars,
Loud and impatient of meandering shores;
Or, deepen’d, shews the Sun his mirror’d face,
Or zones with silver light the mountain’s base.

Now come, with Mundy, where the Ruin lowers!
He hymns the dirge of the devasted Bowers.
Echo his wailings o’er their fallen state,
Whom Centuries hail’d irregularly great.
Come, execrate the Edict that destroy’d,
Leaving Time-hallow’d Needwood bare and void!
There fell Imagination’s rural fane!
Thence fled fair-shafted Dian’s votive Train,
All which the Bard, entranc’d, in forest sees,
Satyrs and Fauns and leaf-crown’d Dryades.
They fled when Avarice, with rapacious frown,
From Mercia’s temples struck her sylvan crown.

Yet, gentle Minstrel, they whose raptur’d ears
Drank thy sweet Song in the departed years;
Saw oaken wreaths thy auburn brows entwine,
The well-won meed at Needwood’s shadowy shrine,
Shall find thy Gratulation’s vivid glow
Match’d by thy Requiem in its mournful flow;
The orb of Mundy’s Muse-illumin’d day
Setting with rival tho’ with milder ray;
Pleas’d shall compare the evening with the noon,
And feel, in equal power, the Cypress Garland won.

ANNA SEWARD.[93]

IMPROMPTU.
TO THE AUTHOR OF THE NEW POEM, ENTITLED
THE FALL OF NEEDWOOD.

OCTOBER, 1808.

When Poesy, the Child of Zeal,
Who soothes each Pang, that Earth can feel,
Beheld, at wounded Nature’s call,
That Scene of Horror, Needwood’s Fall!
She said, in haste to yield Relief,
And calm the Mighty Mother’s Grief:
“Nature! dear Parent! Power divine!
Whose Joys and Griefs are truly mine!
To you my sympathy devotes
My chearful, and my plaintive Notes:
With Feelings not to be supprest,
I view your lacerated Breast;
This Waste of Ravages! where stood
Your Sylvan Wealth! your graceful Wood!
I cannot from the rifled Earth
Call into sudden, second Birth
The Forest, vanished from your sight,
Tho’ once your Pride! and my Delight!
But I can raise, in your Distress,
A Charm, that scarce will soothe you less;
Behold this Proof of my Regard,
In Needwood’s fascinating Bard!

He, whom our blended Gifts engage
To sing, with youthful Fire, in age,
He, Needwood! by whose Breath you live,
Gives you, whatever Verse can give;
He makes immortal, in his Songs,
Your Beauties all, and all your Wrongs:
His Verse displays a deathless Charm,
That foils the Force of Havoc’s Arm;
Age after Age, while Nymphs are found
To breathe Delight on English Ground,
The grateful Dryads will admire
The Magic of their Mundy’s Lyre;
And boast the Wood, he lov’d to praise,
For ever verdant in his Lays.

W. HAYLEY.

-----

Footnote 1:

[DOVE, _etc._] The river _Dove_.

Footnote 2:

[_And bids his hollies, etc._] The numerous groves and clumps of
hollies give uncommon beauty to the winter-scenes of _Needwood
Forest_.

Footnote 3:

[EMES, _etc._] Mr. EMES, who ornamented _Beaudesart_, the seat of Ld.
PAGET, which is seen from the Forest, and who has obtained great
reputation for his Taste in ornamental Gardening, has frequently
assured the Author, that he took his best hints from the scenes of
_Needwood_.

Footnote 4:

[_Maim’d the staunch hound, etc._] Alludes to the Order for _Lawing_,
or cutting off a claw of all Dogs kept within the purlieus of the
royal forests, to prevent their destroying the Deer.

Footnote 5:

[_Here with fair peace, etc._] The Author rents his house, upon the
verge of the forest, of Sir WM. BAGOT. It was built and inhabited by
two gentlemen of the BAGOT family.

Footnote 6:

[_And_ ARDEN _boasts, etc._] See SHAKESPEAR’S _As you like it_.—Scene
Forest of Arden.

Footnote 7:

[_The wandering Wood, etc._] Fairy Queen, Book 1st. chap. 1st. stanza
13th. _This is the wandering Wood, this Errors den._

Footnote 8:

[_And bears away, etc._] B. 1st. c. 2d. The Shield inscribed _Sans
Foy_.

Footnote 9:

[_A gaudy bee-bird’s, etc._] The Humming Bird.

Footnote 10:

[_And there in gothic arches, etc._] Dr. Warburton observes the gothic
architecture originally imitated the groves, which were in earlier
times consecrated to religious worship.

DIVINE LEGATION.

Footnote 11:

[_One like a sexton, etc._] Earth-stopper.

Footnote 12:

[_Where this gay mount, etc._] A beautiful eminence called
KING’S-STANDING.

Footnote 13:

[_And_ LICHFIELD’S _bower, etc._] LICHFIELD Bower is supposed to be
the tumulus of three Saxon Kings slain in battle near that spot.

Footnote 14:

[_British Nile, etc._] Dr. PLOTT calls the DOVE the Nile of England,
and attributes the fertility of its floods to the sheep dung washed
from the hills in the Moorlands.

Footnote 15:

[BROWN, _etc._] HAWKINS BROWN Esq; of _Foston upon Dove_.

Footnote 16:

[C’ANDISH, _etc._] _Doveridge_, the seat of C’ANDISH, ESQ;

Footnote 17:

[FITZHERBERT, _etc._] RICHARD FITZHERBERT, ESQ; of _Sommershall_.

Footnote 18:

[_The social flag, etc._] Messrs. ADDERLEY and SCOTT have pitched a
tent upon a fine hill above _Coton_, from whence a flag flies when
they are at home, as a signal to their friends.

Footnote 19:

[_Outlaw, etc._] A Deer-stealer refusing to surrender was here slain
by a Keeper.

Footnote 20:

[_Where life a gentler breast, etc._] This unfortunate young man being
sent on an errand by the Author of this Poem, died on his return; was
found next morning in the forest within a mile of his home, his dog
standing by him. He was a weaver, supported his father and mother; was
engaged on the night of his death to meet his sweetheart at a
Christmas feast in the neighbourhood.

Footnote 21:

[_Yon cliff, etc._] TUTBURY CASTLE.

Footnote 22:

[FERRERS, _etc._] ROBERT DE FERRERS joining a rebellion against HENRY
3d. forfeited the possession of _Tutbury_.

Footnote 23:

[_Castle-guard, etc._] A service imposed upon those to whom Castles
and Estates adjoining were granted.

Footnote 24:

[MARY, _etc._] MARY Queen of _Scots_ was a prisoner in _Tutbury_
Castle at the time of the Duke of NORFOLK’s intrigues: she listened to
his proposals of marriage, as the only means of obtaining her liberty,
declaring herself otherwise averse to farther matrimonial connections.

Footnote 25:

[_While minstrels, etc._] The minstrels formerly crowded to _Tutbury_
Castle, then a place of festivity and hospitality, in such numbers, as
to require regulations of order and precedence amongst them, the
person appointed for this purpose was called _King_ of the
_Minstrels_.

Footnote 26:

[_In the rude sport, etc._] The annual Bull-running.

Footnote 27:

[_Yon hill, etc._] HOUND-HILL, the ancient seat of the VERNON’S.

Footnote 28:

[_Beside me lies, etc._] The situation of NEEDWOOD is high, and its
banks, descending from the plain of the forest to the country below,
are in many places a mile deep; they consist of alternate cliffs and
dingles, and are entirely covered with trees and rough copses.

Footnote 29:

[_Yes_, EATON-BANKS, _etc._] EATON-WOOD, seen from the Forest, was the
property of the late GODFRY BAGNELL CLARKE, ESQUIRE.

Footnote 30:

[HENRY, _etc._] The Hon. HENRY VERNON.

Footnote 31:

[_On breezy wings, etc._] A Deer when hunted runs against the Wind.

Footnote 32:

[_No shrite-cock, etc._] The Shrite-cock or Missel Thrush.

Footnote 33:

[_Destruction’s arm, etc._] By order from the Dutchy Court of
LANCASTER, to which the forest of NEEDWOOD belongs, the timber is now
felling under the direction of an officer of that Court.

Footnote 34:

[_Huge_ SWILCAR, _etc._] SWILCAR Oak stands singly upon a beautiful
small lawn surrounded with extensive woods,—it is of remarkable size,
and supposed to be six hundred years old.

Footnote 35:

[_Accursed_ JULIUS, _etc._] CÆSAR cuts down a consecrated grove.
LUCAN, lib. 3.

Footnote 36:

[_In freedom’s dearest days, etc._] The charter of HEN. 3. confirms
the privilege to Lords of parliament of killing a Deer or two in any
of the royal forests in their way to or from parliament, in the
presence of the keeper, or on blowing a horn in his absence.—’tis
about six hundred years since that king reigned.

Footnote 37:

[_Yet, yet, fond Hope, etc._] Upon the above order from the Dutchy
Court, Ld. VERNON proposed an inclosure of some parts of the forest,
for the preservation of the young timber, and the beauty of the place.

Footnote 38:

[_Flake of snow, etc._] Flake-white.

Footnote 39:

[_Lakes, etc._] Carnation Colours.

Footnote 40:

[_Where Desolation, etc._] The trees in some parts have been so
injudiciously fallen, that the tillage of the ground is extremely
difficult, or quite at a stand.

Footnote 41:

[_Long Mercia sat beside enthron’d_;] The magnificent site of the
castle at Tutbury, no doubt was occupied by a considerable fort in or
before the time of the Saxon heptarchy when it was the residence of
the Kings and Earls of Mercia, who might alternately enjoy hence the
pleasures of the chase in their adjoining forest of Needwood, or the
satisfaction of security against an enemy.—Shaw’s _History of
Staffordshire_.

Footnote 42:

[_And prouder crowns its honours own’d._] See Needwood Forest, p. 23,
of King’s-Standing.

Footnote 43:

[_Loos’d Uproar &c._] The day of disafforesting presented an
extraordinary scene of riot and disturbance, in consequence of the
pursuit of the remaining deer by mobs from all parts.

Footnote 44:

[_Repentant claimants &c._] It is believed that the freeholders now
very generally regret the Inclosure.

Footnote 45:

[_How far the foremost and the best_,] Though formerly the yeomanry of
this kingdom were every where trained to the use of the long-bow, and
excelled all other nations in the art of shooting, it may be
reasonably presumed that the best archers were to be found in and near
the forests.

Footnote 46:

[_You in your secret labyrinths &c._] Those scenes (forests in
Somersetshire) will ever be famous in British history, while the
remembrance continues of Alfred the Great. Frequent inundations of
Danes and repeated losses had driven him from the management of
affairs. But he retired before the enemies of his country only to
attack them with more advantage. Seeing the time ripe for action he
emerged from his retreat where he had been concealed, but not inactive
during a twelvemonth; called his friends together in the forest of
Selwood, which sheltered him and his numbers. Here arranging his
followers, he burst from the forest like a torrent upon the Danes, and
totally defeated them.—_Gilpin’s Forest Scenery, Hume, &c._

Footnote 47:

[_Your hush’d leaves &c._] Alfred on the night of his retirement from
the Danes, it is said, had a vision of St. Cuthbert, comforting and
assuring him he should be a great King.—_Camden’s Britannia._

Footnote 48:

[_You tun’d his harp, you trimm’d his bow._] He was skilful in the use
of both.

Footnote 49:

[_Your proud oaks lean’d_] He provided himself with a naval power,
which though the most natural defence of an island, had hitherto been
totally neglected by the English.

Footnote 50:

[_Your song-birds_] He endeavoured to convey his morality to his
subjects by apologues, parables, stories, and apothegms couch’d in
poetry.

Footnote 51:

[_While Liberty &c._] Amidst the necessary rigor of justice this great
Prince preserved the most sacred regard to the liberty of his people.

Footnote 52:

[_Lair_] The couch or harbour of a wild beast. _Milton._

Footnote 53:

[_With fresh fray’d beams &c._] As soon as the new horns (or beams) of
a stag have acquired their full dimensions and solidity, he rubs them
against the trees in order to clear them of a skin with which they are
covered.—_Buffon._ To fray (_frayer_, _Fr._) is the hunting term for
this operation.

Footnote 54:

[_On yonder castled cliff &c._] Tutbury castle, the residence of John
of Gaunt Duke of Lancaster.

Footnote 55:

[_And fill’d they not &c._] The Duke of Lancaster greatly
distinguished himself in a battle fought between Najara and Navarete
near the Ebro in Spain in 1367. He commanded the 1st battalion of the
English army.—_Johnes’s Froissart._

Footnote 56:

[_Spain’s boasted slingers &c._] The Spanish commonalty made use of
slings, to which they were accustomed, & from which they threw large
stones which at first much annoyed the English: but when their first
cast was over, and they felt the sharpness of the English arrows, they
kept no longer any order.—_Johnes’s Froissart._

Footnote 57:

[_Hark! nations hail &c._] Alluding to his prowess and fame in the
Crusades.

Footnote 58:

[_The man thy Minstrels bring_,] As the subject of their historic
ballads. The minstrels were much encouraged in this King’s reign.

Footnote 59:

[_As Sherwood’s Hero, &c._] The severity of those tyrannical
forest-laws that were introduced by our Norman Kings, and the great
temptation of breaking them by such as lived near the royal forests,
must constantly have occasioned great numbers of outlaws, and
especially of such as were the best marksmen. These naturally fled to
the woods for shelter, and forming into troops endeavoured by their
numbers to protect themselves from the dreadful penalties of their
delinquency. This will easily account for the troops of banditti,
which formerly lurked in the Royal forests, and from their superior
skill in archery and knowledge of the recesses of those unfrequented
solitudes, found it no difficult matter to resist or elude the civil
power. Among those, none was ever more famous than Robin Hood, the
Hero of Sherwood forest; of whom Stow’s account is briefly thus.—“In
this time (about the year 1190, in the reign of Richard 1st) were many
robbers and outlaws, among the which Robin Hood and Little John,
renowned thieves, continued in woods despoyling and robbing the goods
of the rich. They killed none but such as would invade them, or by
resistance for their own defence. The saide Robert entertained an
hundred tall men and good archers with such spoiles and thefts as he
got, upon whom four hundred (were they ever so strong) durst not give
the onset. He suffered no woman to be oppressed, violated, or
otherwise molested: poor mens goods he spared abundantlie, relieving
them with that, which by theft he got from Abbeys and the houses of
rich Carles.” The personal courage of this celebrated outlaw, his
skill in archery, his humanity, and especially his levelling principle
of taking from the rich and giving to the poor, have in all ages
rendered him the favourite of the common people. He was in early times
the favourite subject of popular songs.—_Percy’s Reliques of antient
English Poetry, 1st vol._

Footnote 60:

[_Bright brown blade, broad arrows, gown of green_,] is the language
of the ballads.

Footnote 61:

[_Needwood, this brave man &c._] See in Robin Hood’s garland a ballad,
(quoted in Shaw’s History of Staffordshire) giving an account of Robin
Hood’s visit to Tutbury; and of his marriage there with
Clorinda.________ The relation of the forest to Tutbury will probably
admit of this consideration of them as one and the same.

Footnote 62:

[_King’s-standing, &c._] See Needwood Forest, page 23.

Footnote 63:

[_On the stain’d turf their wrecks are pil’d_,] Bark-ranges.

Footnote 64:

[_In smouldering heaps, &c._] Making charcoal.

Footnote 65:

[_From blacken’d brakes_,] Burning the furze-brakes.—Goss.—_Bailey’s
Dictionary._

Footnote 66:

[_Yon Wretch_] Surveyor or overlooker.

Footnote 67:

[_Valley! where Marebrook, all unveil’d_,] This Valley nearly bisected
the Forest in beautifully varied windings, though without trees of any
kind on its sides, or on the verge of its little stream, Marebrook,
the course of which was remarkably flexuous; but is now actually
turned down the straight fence-ditch.

Footnote 68:

[_And knights and dames, and dwarfs portray’d, &c._] Needwood Forest,
p. 16.

Footnote 69:

[_But for the bee bird’s gaudy plume, &c._] See Needwood Forest, p.
16.

Footnote 70:

[_Manuel._] The Forest earth-stopper in the hunting days of the
author.

Footnote 71:

[_You fox-gloves, &c._] _See_ _Digitalis—Loves of the plants, p. 78._

“The effect of this plant (the fresh leaves of which may be had at all
seasons of the year) in that kind of Dropsy which is termed anasarca
is truly astonishing.”

Footnote 72:

[_Lyre and shield._] As the God of Medicine, giving health and safety,
Apollo is sometimes described with a shield, as well as a lyre.

Footnote 73:

[_Again to save &c._] See Needwood Forest, p. 43.

Footnote 74:

[_And many a noble heart &c._] Alluding to the opposition to the
Inclosure.

Footnote 75:

[_Yet Limbrook, &c._] This rivulet rises on the late Forest and takes
its course through an extensive valley on the brow of which stands
Byrkley Lodge, and proceeds downwards by Yoxall Lodge: some beautiful
Forest scenes have been added to the old Inclosures of these Lodges,
where are shrubberies and sheets of water.

Footnote 76:

[_And ever, in thy favour’d bound_,] Applying the whole scenery around
these lodges to Limbrook.

Footnote 77:

[_When stoops the stranger ewe to drink_;] Sheep were not depastur’d
on the Forest.

Footnote 78:

[_The tracks of their remember’d deer_,] It is said that the
Wolf-tracks may yet be seen in some parts which those animals
frequented, in Ireland, centuries ago.

Footnote 79:

[_Monster of the world_] French Revolution.

Footnote 80:

[_Emma’s art_] Miss Emma Sneyd, of Byrkley Lodge, has produced some
beautiful landscapes and drawings of the Forest scenes.

Footnote 81:

[“_Here Gisborne penn’d his moral lay_] The character and writings
both in verse and prose of the Rev. Thomas Gisborne, of Yoxall Lodge,
are equally well known and admired: the public has lately called for a
seventh edition of his “Walks in a Forest.”

Footnote 82:

[_Gigantic hollies!_] Particular groups of hollies of great age and
size are here alluded to, as in _Needwood Forest p. 19_. Having been
lopped for the deer in winter, (the upper part of their remaining
trunks and branches being again cloathed with their fresh ever-green
shoots) they had somewhat the appearance of ruins.

Footnote 83:

[_Fair Virgin!_] The Hon. Catharine Venables Vernon died in the summer
of 1775.

Footnote 84:

[_Hark the same bell!—take, sister bier_,] The Hon. Martha Venables
Vernon died while the Author was writing this poem.

Footnote 85:

[_Yes, Holly-Bush!_] Formerly the residence of the Author, where many
alterations have since been made and are making.

Footnote 86:

[_Inland look_;] In contradistinction to its former forest character,
in which sense this word is repeatedly used by Shakespear in “As you
like it,” though there applied to persons.

Footnote 87:

[_Unambitious brow &c._] Needwood Forest p. 8.——[_Favourite Tree
Sycamore_;] Needwood Forest p. 10.

Footnote 88:

[_Hall, whose kind arm &c._] T. K. Hall, Esq. has purchased Holly Bush
with a considerable portion of the adjacent Forest land, the scenery
of which he intends to preserve.

Footnote 89:

[_Revered Swilcar_;] Needwood Forest p. 41, 42. &c.

Footnote 90:

[_Horrid!—I see thee far!_] The present appearance of Swilcar oak over
a broad and hitherto uncultivated part of the late Forest, where not
another tree remains, is very striking. He is fenced off from a new
road.

Footnote 91:

[_And some, with strength &c._] Alluding to the complimentary verses
printed with Needwood Forest, and others afterwards sent to the
author.

Footnote 92:

[_Yon prison’d cliffs_] The banks and cliffs of the Forest, hanging
towards the river Dove, are now fenced in, though otherwise left in
their former state.

Footnote 93:

Milton, in Comus, makes Naiades the plural of Naiad, “amid the
flowery-kirtled Naiades.”

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TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES

● Typos fixed; non-standard spelling and dialect retained. ● Used numbers for footnotes, placing them all at the end of the last chapter. ● Enclosed italics font in _underscores_. ● Enclosed blackletter font in =equals=.