THE ORIGIN OF VIRGINIA WATER.

Otago Witness, Issue 2209, 2 July 1896, Page 49

THE ORIGIN OF VIRGINIA WATER.

The lake of Virginia Water if, in a sense, • the result of tha Battle of Oulloden. George, Dake of Cumberland, was, like the Duke of Cambridge, not only Commander-in- Chief, but also ranger of several royal parks and forests. These offices he filled in a very creditable manner, In the New Forest, of which he was appointed ranger, he was the first to improve the breed of the forest ponies by bringing thoroughbred sires into the district, one of these being Mareke, the sire of Eclipse, and as ranger of Windsor Park he cheated Virginia Water, It is said that his object in so doing was to find employment for the additional soldiers whom the King desired to keep with the colours even after the Rebellion of 1745 had been crushed. It is equally probable that their presence suggested such employment. In either oase the result was a happy one, and highly creditable to the Dake's good taste. The main valley, then a swampy heath, with two narrow glens ""running back into the hills, were covered with the shining level of the new lake, which thus became the largest of all the " Surrey Ponds." The designer was so careful to observe the character of the natural lakes of that county, which are for the most part pools collected in shallow reservoirs without either dam or waterfall, that though the temptation to make a casoade was not to be resisted, he hid it round alcomer so as to be invisible except when sought, and the lake fills the valley without exhibiting any trace of its artificial origin. By the end of the third week in April all the larger native birds are nesting in these woods, and the combination of timber, water, grassy glades, and evergreens attracts them in numbers unequalled anywhere in the neighbourhood of London. It is very doubtful whether in any part of Windsor Forest itself so much of the life of our resident birds can be seen in the course of a few hours as on the margin of this beautiful lake. Woodpeckers^ both of the green and iesier spotted species, wood pigeons in flocks, jays, crows, pheasants, a few wild ducks, and lastly a colony of herons, are all nesting round its shores. At the present time, when the foliage of the deciduous trees is only partly out, and the undergrowth of summer has yet to Epring up, these birds are Been more easily and at closer quarters than at any other season. The ground between the tree trunks is clear of rank growth, the bracken is dead and beaten flat by winter rains, and its young shoots not yet uncurled, the brambles are leafless, the woodruff not half a foot high, and the brown carpet of dead leaves only b.oken by the wild hyaoinths and primrose tufts and green arum leaves. The cock pheasants, which have already learnt that shooting time is past, stray fearlessly in this open ground, the reds and browns o£ their spring plumage shining like abunoh of red wallflower blossom spangled with gold. The turf which fringes the eastern arm of the lake is set at intervals with groups- and single trees of Oriental pines. In one of these a pair of green woodpeokers have drilled a hole, and having completed theic morning's work of wood-boring, spend the sunny hours of the afternoon in searching for ants' nests in the turf, where the hot sun and April showere have tempted the emmets to open their galleries to the air. At the head of the eastern arm of the lake a long grass glade, set at intervals with anoient thorns, is haunted by another pair of the ! green woodpeckers, while the call q£ others it

heard at intervals from all parts of the northern wood. Tbe herons, though some of their young were batched, were extremely shy, dipping noiselessly from nest after neat, and disappearing in the wood. Only five re-turned, to circle above the trees, and i.lese were attracted mainly by the incassp.nt " clattering" of a brood of forward young birds in an isolated nest on the hill. loung storks as well as "young herons ase-this curious alarm note, which might perhaps be of 6ervice to ' frighten a cat which climbed to the stork's nest on a Dutch house, but is much more' likely to came daßger by attracting tbe notice of visitors to berone in an English wood. The silence and speed with \yhsoh ' tbe old birds, in spite of their size, vanished ■ from off their nests and behind the screen of epruce tops was remarkable. ' In this close , cover tfaey slipped away without the rustle of a feather or disturbing a single leaf by tbe ■ stroke of their sft wings. Tbe nestp, of which - we discovered llj all in the loftiest trees, but though spruce firs were the favou- ' ' rites, others were' placed in larches and some in Scotch firs, Large heroniieß seem un'nsual in Surrey and the southern counties. At Wanstead Pa.rk in Eppirg Forest the heronry holds 50 tests, atid recently num- -. bered 68, buy in Surrey and K--nt from 10 , to 15 nests, seems the usual average. The_ l colony at Chilham Park r ' near Canterbury, . probably exceeds-this. number; but at Rich- , i tuond Park, Virginia Water, Vinnej Ridge in the Kew Forest, and Slag Wood in Woolmer !~- Forest -the numbers -have not iccreased in proportion to the time during which ' the ", colonies have been established.— Spectator.