walking path · iv · named for the trees
The walk runs the long ridge from the upper gate, passing seven oaks in a slow procession. The trees are not equidistant: there are gaps of forty paces, of sixty, of a hundred and twenty. The first is the largest, with a girth no two arms can encircle; the seventh is the youngest, planted, the marker says, in 1908, to replace one that fell. The walk is named for what it passes, not for where it goes.
Walkers see, from this path: each oak as a separate room of light — under the first, deep shade; under the third, dappled; under the seventh, almost no shade at all. Between trees, the open field; beyond the field, the chalk down. The walk is favoured by those who like to count what they pass and by those who like to feel themselves passing. The custodian keeps a tally of the acorns, by tree, by year, by no clear reason.
It connects, at its start, to the circular walk; at the seventh oak, to the village lane and to the river walk via the meadow. In high summer it joins the orchard path by an unmarked gap.