1752

ARBORETUM AND FRUTICETUM.

PART III.

vernment plantations of about 6000 acres of young trees have always, nomi-nally at least, been kept up; new pieces of ground being enclosed as the partalready planted became sufficiently advanced to be thrown open to the forest.An act passed in 1800 remedied many previously existing abuses; and theplantations are now in a flourishing state. (See Part IV.)

In France and Germany, the oak is one of the principal trees that havebeen subjected to cultivation; and, in the oldest accounts on record respectingartificial plantations, the oak is mentioned as the object of especial attention.In France it is more attended to than in Germany, on account of the fleetwhich that country has possessed for many centuries. The timber for theFrench navy has not only for many centuries been obtained from the oaks in thenational forests, but even to the present day there is a law by which everyprivate individual who possesses an oak tree of certain dimensions, consideredto be fit for constructing the larger kinds of ships of war, is obliged, when heintends to cut it down, to make the first offer of it to government. InBaudrillart’s Dictionnaire des Eaux et Forets will be found numerous regu-lations respecting the common oak, all proving how much its timber is valuedbeyond that of all other trees in France. After having thus given what maybe called the economical history of the common British oak, we shall nextsay a few words respecting its legendary history in the British Islands, andits biography.

Legendary History. The oak appears to have been an object of worshipamong the Celts and ancient Britons. The Celts worshipped their God Teutunder the form of this tree; and the Britons regarded it as a symbol of theirgod Tarnawa, the god of thunder. According to Professor Burnet, from Hu(the Bacchus of the druids) came the word Yule; but others derive it fromBaal, Bel, or Yiaoul, who was the Celtic god of fire, and was sometimesidentified with the Sun, and was also worshipped under the form of anoak. Baal was considered the same as the Roman Saturn, and his festival(that of Yule) was kept at Christmas, which was the time of the Satur-nalia. The druids professed to maintain perpetual fire; and once everyyear all the fires belonging to the people were extinguished, and relightedfrom the sacred fire of the druids This was the origin of the Yulelog, with which, even so lately as the commencement of the last century, theChristmas fire, in some parts of the country, was always kindled ; a fresh logbeing thrown on and lighted, but taken off before it was consumed, and re-served to kindle the Christmas fire of the following year. The Yule log wasalways of oak; and, as the ancient Britons believed that it was essential fortheir hearth fires to be renewed every year from the sacred fire of thedruids, so their descendants thought that some misfortune would befall themif any accident happened to the Yule log. (See Irving’s Bracebridge Hall.)The worship of the druids was generally performed under an oak; and a heapof stones was erected, on which the sacred fire was kindled, which was calleda cairn, as Professor Burnet says, from kern, an acorn. The mistletoe washeld in great reverence; and, as it was not common on the oak, solemn cere-monies attended the search for it. The druids fasted for several days, andoffered sacrifices in wicker baskets or frames ; which, however, were not madeof willow, but of oak twigs, curiously interwoven ; and were similar to thatstill carried by Jack in the Green on May-day, which, according to ProfessorBurnet, is one of the relics of druidism. When all was prepared for thesearch (the mistletoe having been, no doubt, previously found by some of theassistants), the druids went forth, clad in white robes, to search for the sacredplant; and, when it was discovered, one of the druids ascended the tree, andgathered it with great ceremony, separating it from the oak with a goldenknife. The mistletoe was always cut at a particular age of the moon, at thebeginning of the year, and with the ceremonies already detailed under the headof Fiscum (see p. 1022.); and it was only sought for when the druids hadhad visions directing them to seek it. When a great length of time elapsedwithout this happening, or if the mistletoe chanced to fall to the ground, it