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Show SIIEKiTO'JI) FOItnsT OP TODAY. HOW THE AltODK OF ItOIIlN II03D AND III3 MEKI'.Y 3IEN LOOKS. In Siicrwood Kortst Hobin Hood rximed with his merry men, aad with it hah. been a.-socla'.cd the names of tho pious and Imperious Henry, Charles the martyr, 'cll Gwynnc, Lord Hyron, aud indeed many of the most illustrious of Englishmen. Doubtless in Robin Hood days one could roam almost Iromonecndof Nottinghamshire to tho other "under the greenwood tree." Hut things have changed. Vi-itlng England tome years ago I saw steam-plows rattling over and tearing up tho very heart of this historical old forest, and heard the click and rumble or reapers to right and left and everywhere: aud the owner of JTewstead Abbey who took mc out to see his plough at wcrk talked of drainage and ferlill-zitlon, ferlill-zitlon, plowing, planting, and reaping reap-ing on this classic, almost sacred soil! with all the coolness aud com-pcturo com-pcturo that might characterize the simplest old farmer wiio owns any of tho vast wheat fields of Dakota. Tho mud of the ancient and poetic ettatejof evrttcnd Abbey stuck to our bcots Just the fame as it 'might In Illinois or Oregon, and tbe rain fell uion us here the same ns there, anil drove to the shelter of a redbrick red-brick farmhouje haid by. The farmhouse and barn are built on an eievation,and while I stood In the door of tho stables and saw a great tlxk of green-headed ducks waddle down to a little pond, I looked out on the forest nnd saw only field fields of green and yellow yel-low grain as far as the eye could reach. Ancient Sherwood Forest, too well known to the world to need a word of hbtory here, is no more. |
