ITS MANAGEMENT
155
" King's Oak" we reach the High Wood at
High Beach. This charming old beech wood
is of the same character as Monk Wood, except
that it is more closely grown, and this has
been the case for so long that there is scarcely
anything that could be removed from it with
advantage.
The Fairmead Thicket covers a wide area of
nearly flat ground with a clay soil, and is there-
fore most suited to the growth of oak and horn-
beam, which kinds occupy the ground almost to
the exclusion of other species. The wide grass
glades bordered by rounded patches of black-
thorn are a distinctive and beautiful feature of
this district. The oaks, the best of which appear
to be of two hundred years' growth, are in some
parts too closely ranked for healthy development;
but having regard to the difference of opinion that
exists on this point, great care will doubtless be
exercised in thinning them. Bury Wood, or to
quote the name by which it is more commonly
known, Hawk Wood, has, for the same reason,
excited much controversy. From this wood about
three hundred small drawn-up oaks were removed
in 1894. The process should, in my opinion, be
carried somewhat further, though I am well aware
that there are good judges who do not share this
opinion. The weak and spindly sticks, to which I
refer, in my opinion only help to arrest the develop-
ment of finer trees, and groups of trees. The chief
beauty of an oak lies in its massive lateral branches,
but in this wood such laterals are for the most part
being killed by overcrowding. A large propor-
tion of the hornbeam pollards associated with
them have been taken out, and Hawk Wood will
be essentially an oak wood with an undergrowth of
thorns. There are, I think, only two beech trees
in the whole of it.
Lord's Bushes, a wood of 120 acres, is, I think,
in as healthy a condition as any block of the
Forest. The fine spear beeches have made
great progress in recent years. There are some
very rugged and picturesque old hornbeam stems,