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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 .

• Citation
  • 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/