Enchanted wood

My sister was round at our house at the weekend, trying to give up cannabis after 35 years. It’s her idea but she was absolutely furious about it and her mouth was twisted with vexation, even when she lay asleep on the sofa. On Saturday afternoon me and my boy thought it best to be well out of the way should the volcano erupt again. So we drove up to Dartmoor and sat in the shade of a small primeval oak wood for the afternoon.

Wistman’s Wood is a rare and unusual remnant of the kind of oak woodland that used to cloak the moor. It has survived because it grows out of a ‘clitter’ (boulder-strewn) slope, which has saved the oaks from the axe and protected young saplings from creatures that nibble. The trees are weirdly stunted and festooned with mosses and lichens. Many believe that the wood was once a Druids’ sacred grove. This is most likely an extravagant absurdity put about by Victorian clergyman antiquarians.