CHAP. CV.

COltYLA'cEiE. QUE'ltCUS.

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30 ft. from the tree, now lies completely buried in the ground. The treestands singly in a very conspicuous situation, on rising ground, and attractsthe notice of travellers. At Melbury Park, there is an old oak, called BillyWilkins, which is 50 ft. high, spreads 60 ft., and has a trunk 8 ft. high beforeit breaks into branches, which is 30 ft. in circumference at the smallest part,and 37 ft. at the collar. It is a remarkably gnarled knotty tree, and is calledby Mitchell, in his Dcndrologia, “ as curly, surly, knotty an old monster as canbe conceivedthough for marble-grained furniture, he adds, it would sell ata guinea per foot.

Essex. The Fairlop Oak stood in an open space of Hainault Forest. “Thecircumference of its trunk, near the ground, was 48 ft.; at 3 ft. high, it measured36 ft. round; and the short bole divided into 11 vast branches, not inthe horizontal manner usual in the oak, but rather with the rise that is moregenerally characteristic of the beech. These boughs, several of which werefrom 10ft. to J2Ft. in girt, overspread an area 300ft. in circuit; and formany years a fair was held beneath their shade, no booth of which -was al-lowed to extend beyond it. This celebrated festival owed its origin to theeccentricity of Daniel Day, commonly called ‘ Good Day,’ who, about 1720,was wont to invite his friends to dine with him, the first Friday in July, on beansand bacon, under this venerable tree. From this circumstance becoming known,the public were attracted to the spot; and about 1725 the fair above mentionedwas established, and was held for many years on the 2d of July in each year.Mr. Day never failed to provide annually several sacks of beans, which hedistributed, with a proportionate quantity of bacon, from the hollowed trunkof the oak, to the crowds assembled. The project of its patron tendedgreatly, however, to injure his favourite tree; and the orgies annually cele-brated. to the honour of the Fairlop Oak, yearly curtailed it of its fair pro-portions. Some years ago, Mr. Forsyth’s composition was applied to thedecayed branches of this tree, to preserve it from future injury; probably bythe Hainault Archery Society, who held their meetings near it.” ( Lysons .)At this period, a board was affixed to one of the limbs of this tree, with thisinscription : — “ All good foresters are requested not to hurt this old tree, aplaster having been lately applied to his wounds.” (See Gent. Mag. for1793, p. 792.) Mr. Day had his coffin made of one of the limbs of this tree,which was torn off in a storm; and, dying in 1767, at the age of 84,he was buried in it in Barking churchyard. The persons assembled at thefair frequently mutilated the tree; and it was severely injured by somegipsies, who made its trunk their place of shelter. But the most fatal injuryit received was in 1805, from a party of about sixty cricketers, who had spentthe day under its shade, and who carelessly left a fire burning too near itstrunk. The tree was discovered to be on fire about eight in the evening, twohours after the cricketers had left the spot; and, though a number of persons,with buckets and pails of water, endeavoured to extinguish the flames, thetree continued burning till morning. (Gent. Mag., June, 1805, p. 574.)“ The high winds of February, 1820,” Professor Burnet informs us, “ stretchedthis forest patriarch on the ground, after having endured the storms of per-haps 1000 winters. Its remains were purchased by a builder; and from aportion thereof the pulpit and reading-desk in the new church, St. Pancras,were constructed : they are beautiful specimens of British oak, and will longpreserve the recollection of this memorable tree.” (Amcen. Q,ner.,io\. 15.)

In Hatfield Broad-Oak, or Takely, Forest, nearthe village of Hatfield, stand the remains of anold oak, from which the village and forest derivetheir name of Hatfield Broad-Oak. This tree( fg. 1593.), in its present state, measures 42 ft. incircumference at the base ; but, in 1813, before alarge portion of the bark fell in, it was upwards of60 ft. It seems to have been one of those stag-headed trees, which are remarkable for the com- 1593

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