1764

ARBORETUM AND FRUTICETUM.

PART III.

quite hollow, and the cavity large enough tohold at least 30 persons. An arm was blownoffin 1811, which contained 2 waggon loadsof wood. (Amrnn. Quer., fol. 14.) A drawingof this tree, of which Jig. 1603. is a copy, wassent to us by Samuel Taylor, Esq., of Whit-tington, near Stoke Ferry, Norfolk, accom- :panied by the following observations : — “Ofthe age of this remarkable tree I regret to beunable to give any correct data. It is said tohave been called the ‘ Old Oak’ at the timeof William the Conqueror, but upon whatauthority I could never learn. Nevertheless,the thing is not impossible, if the speculationsof certain writers on the age of trees be at all correct. Mr. South, in one ofhis letters to the Bath Society (vol. x.), calculates that an oak tree 47 ft. incircumference cannot be less than 1500 years old; and Mr. Marsham calcu-lates the Bentley Oak, from its girting 34 ft., to be the same age. Now, aninscription on a brass plate affixed to the WinfarthingOak gives us the following as its dimensions: —“ Thisoak, in circumference, at the extremities of the roots,is 70 ft. ; in the middle, 40 ft. 1820.” Now, I see noreason, if the size of the rind is to be any criterion ofage, why the Winfarthing should not, at least, equal theBentley Oak; and, if so, it would be upwards of 700 -years old at the Conquest; an age which might very welljustify its then title of the ‘ Old Oak.’ It is now a mere shell — a mightyruin, bleached to a snowy white; hut it is magnificent in its decay; and I dowonder much that Mr. Strutt should have omitted it in his otherwise satis-factory list of tree worthies. The only mark of vitality it exhibits is on thesouth side, where a narrow strip of hark sends forth the few branches shownin the drawing, which even now occasionally produce acorns. It is said tobe very much altered of late; but I own I did not think so when I saw itabout a month ago (May, 1836); and my acquaintance with the veteran is ofmore than 40 years’ standing; an important portion of my life, but a merespan of its own." ( Gard. Mag., vol. xii. p. 586.)

Northamptonshire. This county is celebrated for its forests, which are saidto be sufficient in themselves to build more than twice the number of shipswhich now compose the British navy. There are, also, a great number of oldtrees in this county; probably because the inland situation of it rendered theconveyance of timber to the coast too expensive. Some of the most inte-resting of these trees stood in Yardley Chase, which was once a part of SalceyForest, though it has been long disforested, and is now the property of theMarquess of Northampton. In Hayley’s Life and Posthumous Writings ofWilliam Cowper, at the end of the third volume, there is an interestingpoetic fragment, entitled “Yardley Oak,” of which the following explanationis given in a letter from Dr. Johnson,a kinsman of the poet:—“Among our dearCowper’s papers, I found the following memorandum : — ‘Yardley Oak, ingirt, feet 22, inches 6 V. The oak at Yardley Lodge, feet 28, inches 5.’ Asto the Yardley Oak, it stands in Yardley Chase, where the Marquess of North-ampton has a fine seat [Castle Ashby]. It was a favourite walk of our dearCowper; and he once carried me to see that oak. I believe it is five miles, atleast, from Weston Lodge. It is indeed a noble tree, perfectly sound, andstands in an open part of the chase, with only one or two others near it, so asto be seen to advantage. With respect to the oak at Yardley Lodge, that isquite in decay ; a pollard, and almost hollow. I took an excrescence fromit in the year 1791 ; and, if I mistake not, Cowper told me it is said tohave been an oak in the time of the Conqueror. This latter oak is in theroad to the former, but not above half so far from Weston Lodge, being