Burnham Beeches

Burnham Beeches, the remains of an ancient forest in Buckinghamshire, 25 miles W. of London. The London Corporation purchased the surrounding 374 acres in 1879, and set them apart for public use, 3d October 1883. The poet Gray, early in the 18th century, first called attention in his letters to the wild woodland. Many of these beeches have been, and still are, of immense size. Mr F. G. Heath, who was the first to urge their acquirement for public use, has described them in Burnham Beeches (1880).