1762

ARBORETUM AND FRUTICETUM.

PART III.

1595

branch like the former. In a great storm, on the 27th of February, 1781,boththe wall and the tree were blown down together.” ( Gilpin.)

Mr. South, in the Bath Society Papers, tells us that in the New Forest therewas an oak, which was felled in 1768, called the Langley Oak, the trunk ofwhich, after it was cut down and barked, measured 36 ft. in circumference at thebase, and 18 ft. in circumference at the height of 20 ft., which was the length ofthe bole. The head was all knees and crooks, and the branches extendedabout 40 ft. from the tree on every side. The timber was perfectly sound, andthe tree was in a growing state when it was cut down.

Isle of Wight. Nunwell Park affords examples of several oaks whichare supposed to have flourished, where they are now in a state of decay, at thetime the grant of the park was made by William the Conqueror to the ances-tor of Sir William Oglander, one of the Norman in-vaders, and from whose family the possession has never ,lapsed. ( Amcen. Quer., fol. 18.)

Herefordshire. The Moccas Park Oak {fig. 1595.),"on the banks of the Wye, is 36 ft. in girt at 3 ft. fromthe ground. It is hollow in the trunk; but its head,though much injured by time and storms, is bushy andleafy.

Hertfordshire. The Great Oak, at Panshanger {fig. 1596.), growing on theestate of Earl Cowper, is, as Strutt observes, a fine specimen of the oak treein its prime. Though upwards of 250 years old, andthough it has been called the Great Oak for morethan a century, it yet appears “ even now to havescarcely reached its meridian : the waving lightness ofits feathery branches, dipping down to the very ground,the straightness of its stem, and the redundancy of itsfoliage, give it a character the opposite of antiquity,and fit it for the sequestered and cultivated pleasure- fgrounds in which it stands.” {Sylv. Brit., p. 7.) Thehuge oak near Theobald’s, commonly called Goff’sOak, is 32 ft. in circumference close to the ground.

It gives its name to an inn close by, from the door of which it assumes amost imposing appearance. In one of the rooms there is the figure of thisoak, and stuck thereon the following printed account: — “ This tree wasplanted A. D. 1066, by Sir Theodore Godfrey, or Goffby, who came overwith William the Conqueror.” (See Amcen. Quer., fol. 18.)

Kent. There are three fine oaks at Fredville, in the parish of Newington,in this county. The Majesty Oak {fig. 1597.), at 8 ft. from ground, exceeds28 ft. in girt; and it contains above 1400 ft. of timber. Stately{fig. 1598.) has a clear stem 70 ft. high, and 18 ft. in girt at

4 ft. from the ground. Beautyis not so high, and is only16ft. in girt at 4 ft. from the■ ground. Fisher’s Oak, about17 miles from London, on theTunbridge Road, is said byMartyn to have been of enor-mous bulk. The part of the1597 trunk now remaining is 24 ft.

in compass. When King James made a progress that way,a schoolmaster in the neighbourhood, and all his scholars,dressed in oaken garlands, came out of this tree in greatnumbers, and entertained the king with an oration. There is a tradition atTunbridge Wells, that 13 men, on horseback, were once sheltered within thistree. Sir Philip Sydney’s Oak, at Penshurst {fig. 1599.), is thus mentionedby Ben Jonson : —

“ That taller tree, of which the nut was setAt his great birth, where all the Muses met.”

1596

1598