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Untitled Article
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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At the little , out of the way , undisturbed village of Edwinstow you can see no indication , nor , without previously acquired Knowledge ., would you guess that you are within five minutes walk of the most perfect specimen of antique forest , the most sequestered and distinctly charactered elf and fairy realm on earth . It is the last vestige of Sherwood ' s right to renown . It stands alone , as it has stood for the last thousand years ; as it
stood centuries before graceless King John and his graceless nobles and courtiers hunted tne deer under its umbrageous boughs ; before Norman William grasped at the Saxon homesteads , and desolated the hearths of a hundred yeomen to gorge one of his bullheaded fellow-ruffians . By itself it stands , and is like no other spot on which my eyes have ever looked , or my feet have ever trod . It is Birkland , a beautiful land of beautiful birches ,
with , near it , adjoining it , a noble neighbour , Billhagh , or Bellehagh , all of oaks which have seen ten generations come and pass away . Among the birches , too , stand many of these tall , huge , bulky , and venerable giants . But come , reader , let us walk to this Birkland , up the short street through the village , throwing , as we go , a passing glance at the church ' s old tower and queer spire , and wondering inquisitively at the odd fancy which placed
the eight niches at the tower ' s top and the spire ' s foot ; wherein formerly stood as many grey-coated , grey-nosed , and greyskinned goodly stone saints ; which an opposing sect of image worshippers , deeming the elevation of these impious or idolatrous , dismounted and demolished . A few paces more , and Edwinstow is behind you : here the road branches off in a Y fashion ; that to the left inclining more to a right angle with the street : the
right hand road leads to Thoresby Park—the left is the road to nowhere , or anywhere ; for as your eye runs along it you perceive it grows turfy and green , being little trodden , except by sheep and harvest wains . Take neither of these roads , but proceed directly onwards . Just at the junction of the forks , the apex of the angle , is a company of tall graceful trees , firs anc ^ other gentlefolks , towering aloft , and very beautiful : look well at them , take impressions of them strongly—they are the portal spirits to something more grand , august , sublime : perhaps they are
octogenarians—or a century old—yet they will appear like striplings , infants , by the contrast to which you are approaching . Walk down upon that smooth sinking sweep of undulation : how gracefully it bends ! like the mighty magnificent curve in a vast and green Atlantic billow , which by some omnipotence , some invisible hand , has been suspended in its rolling , and fixed thus as we see it . 4 Here let the billows stiffen and have rest !' said the great voice , and it was so . A stone-covered well is all that
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424
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A PEEP INTO SHERWOOD FOREST .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1834, page 424, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2634/page/42/
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