The Dukeries Part 3

[Ill.u.s.tration: EDWINSTOWE]

To the left, one pa.s.ses through a wicket, and coasts a great wood for some hundred yards, then turns sharply and soon reaches the "Russian Cottage", a chalet "put together without nails", near by which is the well-known "Shambles Oak" or "Robin Hood's Larder", so called because in its hollow interior once were hooks for the storing of stolen venison.

Unfortunately this fine tree was fired by some holiday-makers years ago, and to-day there is something pathetic in the valiant greenness of its scanty leaves. It is like an old, old man who will be brave to the end.

Thence, by pa.s.sing along the glades of Birkland and following paths faintly worn--with a chance of straying into strange solitudes--one comes before long to the "Major Oak"--the most virile of all the ancient trees. In spite of its iron stays--possibly because of them--it is still vigorous and hearty, although its age has been estimated at considerably more than a thousand years. There is something monstrous and uncanny about this veteran; in its vicinity folk of to-day seem strangely out of place.

A pleasant old keeper watches it vigilantly, careful that none shall harm his treasure. He has a curious enough favourite: a fine c.o.c.k pheasant which comes to his call--has done so indeed for the last four years--and daintily accepts plumcake from his hand. Once this bird had a mate; now he remains a contented widower. The quaintness of the good-fellowship of man and bird is very pleasant to observe.

The circ.u.mference of the "Major Oak" at the height of five feet from the ground is over thirty feet, and the circ.u.mference of its branches is about two hundred and seventy yards. It was formerly called the "Queen's Oak", or the "c.o.c.kpen", the latter because of a fine breed of gamec.o.c.ks that roosted there in the days of a Major Rooke, to whom it owes its present name. The tree is hollow, and, entering by a narrow opening--difficult enough for a stout person to negotiate--seventeen or eighteen may crowd together in the interior. Not far away is another magnificent tree, less known but almost equally worthy of admiration. It is called the "Simon Foster Oak", from the fact that a century ago a person of that name kept his pigs in acorn-time nightly under its shelter.

Thence Edwinstowe may easily be reached by a path across the green.

Historically the village is of some importance, since, according to general belief, Edwin, the first Christian King of Northumbria, was buried there. It is a sleepy, comely place; in winter the warm colouring of old brick and tile is very pleasant to the wayfarer, whilst throughout the other seasons the rich little gardens are all gay with old-fashioned flowers. The church is admirably situated, and has a tall and graceful spire with grotesque ornaments at the base, which from a distance bear a fantastical resemblance to roosting birds. In 1679 the folk of Edwinstowe humbly pet.i.tioned for permission to take two hundred oaks for the repair of the building, and one reads that, seven years before, the steeple had been beaten down by thunder, and the old body shaken, and in a very ruinous condition; also that without the king's charitable help the whole church must absolutely perish. After the resultory survey, the Surveyors General of the Woods wrote that most of the trees of Birkland and Bilhagh were decayed, very few of use to the navy being left. Finally it was decided that such trees might be taken as were not fit for Government purposes. Strangely enough, neither in this church nor in its sister of Ollerton are any ancient monuments, such as one might expect to find in so interesting a neighbourhood. At the vicarage here lived for some years Dr. E. Cobham Brewer, best known for his _Dictionary of Phrase and Fable_; whilst in a house that stood beside the stream lived William--afterwards Sir William--Boothby, the uncle of pretty Penelope, whose white marble tomb is one of the wonders of Ashbourne in Peakland.

The birches from which Birkland takes its name are accounted amongst the finest in the kingdom, and at no time look better than on a sunny winter's morning, when they present a wonderful symphony of brown and silver. After crossing Edwinstowe, in a sufficiently dangerous way, the road continues, with Bilhagh in sight, to Ollerton, where it bridges the placid Maun. Not far away is a small red quarry, its toy precipice pierced with the retreats of sand-martins. To the left is c.o.c.kglode, the only large house left in the forest proper--a Georgian place with a fine avenue of Scots pines. This was the residence of the late Earl of Liverpool, who, like all his n.o.ble neighbours, counted the great Bess of Hardwick amongst his forbears.