scription given of one of them, extracted from Hutchins' History of Dorsetshire.

season.

"The name of this memorable sportsman was Henry Hastings, second son to the Earl of Huntingdon. He inherited a good estate in Dorsetshire from his mother. He was one of the keepers of New Forest, and resided in his lodge there during a part of every hunting But his principal residence was at Woodlands in Dorsetshire, where he had a capital mansion. He was of low stature, but strong and active, of a ruddy complexion, with flaxen hair. His cloaths were always of green cloth. His house was of the old fashion, in the midst of a large park well stocked with deer, rabbits and fish ponds. He had a long narrow bowling green in it, and used to play with round sandbowls. Here too he had a banquetting-room built, like a stand, in a large tree. He kept all sorts of hounds that ran buck, fox, hare, otter, and badger; and had hawks of all kinds, both long and shortwinged. His great hall was commonly strewed with marrow-bones; and full of hawk-perches, hounds, spaniels and terriers. The upper end of it was hung with fox-skins of this and the last years killing. Here and there a pole-cat was intermixed, and hunters' poles in great abundance. The parlour was a large room, completely furnished in the same style. On a broad hearth, paved with brick, lay some of the choicest terriers, hounds and spaniels. One or two of the great chairs had litters of cats in them, which were

AN OLD ENGLISH SPORTSMAN.

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not to be disturbed. Of these, three or four always attended him at dinner, and a little white wand lay by his trencher, to defend it if they were too troublesome. In the windows, which were very large, lay his arrows, cross-bows, and other accoutrements. The corners of the room were filled with his hunting and hawkingpoles. His oyster-table stood at the lower end of the room, which was in constant use twice a day, for he never failed to eat oysters both at dinner and supper, with which the neighbouring town of Pool supplied him. At the upper end of the room stood a small table with a double desk, one side of which held a Church Bible; the other the Book of Martyrs. On different tables in the room lay hawk's-hoods, bells, old hats, with their crowns thrust in, full of pheasant's eggs; tables, dice, cards, and store of tobacco-pipes. At one end of this room was a door, which opened into a closet, where stood bottles of strong beer and wine, which never came out but in single glasses, which was the rule of the house, for he never exceeded himself, nor permitted others to exceed. Answering to this closet, was a door into an old Chapel, which had been long disused for devotion; but in the pulpit, as the safest place, was always to be found a cold chine of beef, a venison-pasty, a gammon of bacon, or a great apple-pie, with thick crust, well baked. His table cost him not much, though it was good to eat at. His sports supplied all, but beef and mutton, except on Fridays when he had the best of fish. He never

wanted a London pudding, and he always sang it in with, "My part lies therein-a. He drank a glass or two of wine at his meals; put syrup of gillyflowers into his sack, and had always a tun-glass of smallbeer standing by him, which he often stirred about with rosemary. He lived to be an hundred, and never lost his eye-sight, or used spectacles. He got on horseback without help, and rode to the death of the stag, 'till he was past fourscore."

Perhaps the late Sir John Cope was the last old English sportsman of this breed. When I last saw him at Bramshill, he was then in a green old age, following his hounds and dispensing his hospitalities to his neighbours. I was delighted to see some of his superannuated hunstmen and whippers-in basking in the sun outside the kitchen door, having a good larder to go to,. and a jug of strong ale to cheer them. Some old favourite hounds reposed at their feet, and the wornout hunters passed the remainder of their lives in adjoining paddocks.

But to return to the Forests. Perhaps one of the most interesting of our old forests is that of Sherwood in Nottinghamshire. Above the village of Clipston, on the borders of the forest, are some remains of an old palace of the Anglo-Saxon Kings. Mansfield, a town in the forest, was the residence of the Kings of England down to the reign of Henry V. and it was here that he made acquaintance with the Miller of famous memory.

SHERWOOD FOREST.

"Henry, our royall king, would ride a hunting

To the greene forest so pleasant and faire,

To see the harts skipping, and dainty does tripping;
Unto merry Sherwood his nobles repaire."

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This forest was also the retreat of another personage equally celebrated in the chronicles of ballads, even the popular hero of Sherwood, Robin Hood, who with Little John, and the rest of his associates, made the woody scenes of the forest his asylum.

The Parliament Oak in Sherwood Forest must have been of a great age. Tradition says that King John held a Parliament under it. There are other large and interesting trees in it. The greendale oak in Welbeck Park is of a vast size and age. So great was the antiquity of some of the old oak pollards in Sherwood Forest, that in cutting some of them for various purposes, the crown with an I. R. was found deeply imbedded in the trees. If, therefore, they were marked as timber trees in the reign of King John, as is generally supposed, they must have been of a great age. Though I have not seen these marks myself, my authority for their existence is derived from the present excellent Duke of Portland, and also from one of the late Commissioners of the Royal Woods and Forests.

Needwood Forest in Staffordshire, is a tract of elevated country, commanding most extensive views, bounded on one side by the romantic scenes of Dovedale; and on a promontory, overlooking an extensive plain, stands Tutbury Castle, once the mansion of the

Dukes of Lancaster. The internal parts of the Forest present the grandest effect of wooded scenery, where there is much variety of ground and spots of great beauty from the number and different forms of the lawns, and the varied outline of the woods which surround them. The underwood is chiefly composed of hazels and thorns; and these produce beautiful thicket scenery, oaks being mixed with them. The hollies are numerous, and commonly of the size of trees; and add beauty to the scenery at all times, and in winter must give it a peculiar cheerfulness.

Hainault, and Epping, or Waltham Forest, as it was originally called, are supposed formerly to have covered a great part of the county of Essex. Nothing can be more agreeable than wandering amongst the pollarded hornbeams, and over the green lawns of these Forests; but hollies and fern are wanting in many places, to add to the charmis of the scenery. The large herds of deer, also, which formerly graced this Forest, have now nearly disappeared, not from any lack of keepers to look after them, but from actual starvation in the winter months.

In a glade in Hainault Forest, about a mile from Barkingside, stood an oak which had been known through many centuries as the Fairlop oak. The tradition of the country traces it half way up the Christian era. It was formerly a noble tree, and beneath its shade, which overspread an area of three hundred feet in circuit, an annual fair used to be held