Herrick alludes to the practice in the lines addressed
to Anthea in _Hesperides_:
"Dearest, bury me
Under that Holy-oke or Gospel-tree,
Where (though thou see'st not) thou may'st think upon
Me, when thou yeerly go'st Procession."
But perhaps the oak that appeals most to the lively imagination
venerating old tales of merry England, and with whose story generous
hearts are most in sympathy, is that
"Wherein the younger Charles abode
Till all the paths were dim,
And far below the Roundhead rode,
And hummed a surly hymn."
The beech is not a common tree in the Vale of Evesham, preferring the
dryer soils of the Cotswold Hills. It is said to have been introduced
by the Romans, and is familiar as the tree mentioned by Virgil in the
opening line of his first Pastoral:
"_Tityre tu patulae recubans sub tegmine fagi_;"
the metre, and the words of which, apart from their signification,
suggest so accurately the pattering of the leaves of the tree in a
gentle breeze. This device like alliteration is a method of
intensifying the expression of a passage, and is frequently adopted by
the poets.
In another famous onomatopoeic line--
"_Quadrupedante putrem sonitu quatit ungula campum_"
--Virgil imitates the sound of a galloping horse, and the shaking of
the ground beneath its hoofs.
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