Forest groups and thickets

Forest Groups.-In that part of the forest near Laytonstone and Woodford, and, indeed, in all forest thickets, it will be seen that each mass of thorns, or brushwood, contains one or more young trees, to which it acts as nurse and protector; these trees require no other defence against the numerous herds of cattle, and they grow to a prodigious size; but to the latest period of their existence, especially in Windsor forest, we often see an aged thorn at the foot of a venerable oak, forming the most picturesque and interesting group- like the fond but decrepid nurse, still clinging to her foster child, though it no longer needs her assistance.