CHAP. CV.

CORYLA'CEjE. <2UE'RCUS.

1765

only just beyond Killick and Dinglederry. This is all I can tell youthe oaks: they were old acquaintances, and great favourites, of theHow rejoiced I am to hear that he has immortalisedone of them in blank verse ! Where could these 161lines be hid ? Till this very day, I never heard of theirexistence, nor suspected of it.” (See Monthly Reviewfor July 1804, p. 249.) The noble oaks, Gog and Magog{figs. 1604. and 1605.), stand in the same demesne, andare also the property of the Marquess of Northampton,through whose kindness they were measured for us, inAugust, 1836, by Mr. Munro, His Lordship’s forester.

Gog is a straight handsome tree, measuring, at 1 ft.

about

bard.

1604

from the ground, 33 ft. 1 in., and at 6 ft., 28 ft. 5 in., in circumference. The

Magog is 46 ft. 6 in., at 6 ft. It is 66 ft.

1605

height is 72 ft., and the diameter of the head 83 ft. 1 in.in circumference at 1 ft. from the ground, and 30 ft. 7 in.

8 in. high, and the head is 78 ft. in diameter. Theform of the head in both trees is irregular and muchdilapidated, particularly that of Magog. Some ideamay be formed of the size of the original head by the <fact, that, a few years ago, one of the branches ex- .tended horizontally 57 ft. from the bole of the tree.

Great part of this branch is now broken off. Thetrunk of Magog is much thicker, in proportion to thegeneral size of the tree, than that of Gog, and it isnot so straight: indeed, Magog ‘ wreathes his oldfantastic roots so high,’ that it is difficult to distin-guish them from the trunk. Both trees are still in a growing state, and,though they have many dead branches, are yet nearly covered every year withhealthy deep green foliage.” At the extremity of some of the living branches,Mr. Munro found the average length of the current year’s wood to be about3Jin.; and from one of the excrescences (commonly called warts) on thetrunk of Magog he took a one year’s shoot 12 in. long. Both the trees areof the same species (Q. pedunculata). Mr. Munro adds that he does notthink that Mr. Strutt has done justice to Magog {fig. 1604.), which, he says, isquite as vigorous a tree, and nearly as large, as Gog {fig. 1605.). Cowper’sOak, or Judith, as it is sometimes called, from a legend that it was planted byJudith, the niece of William the Conqueror, “ stands close by the side of theprincipal carriage drive round Yardley Chase, and must have been a favouritewith Cowper on account of its grotesque figure, rather than from its size orbeauty. Like many other old oak trees in this neighbourhood, it exhibits a hugemisshapen mass of wood, swelling out, here and there, in large warty tumours.Its girt, at 1 ft. from the ground, is 30 ft., and at 6 ft., 24 ft. 1 in.; height, 31 ft.;diameter of the head, 38 ft.; length of last summer’s young wood, 7 in., 8 in.,and lOin.” The trunk leans so much to the south, Mr. Munro informs us,“ as almost to admit of a person walking up, with very little aid from thehands, to the point where the branches diverge; or, I rather should say, tothe point from which the branches did diverge, which may be about 13 ft.from the ground. Here the remains of three huge branches are seen extend-ing in opposite directions, to the length of about 10 ft. or 12 ft. from thetrunk. Not a vestige of bark is upon them, they are quite hollow, and, insome parts, half of this crust has wasted away. On the south side, the trunkhas the appearance of having been cleft down the middle, from top to bottom;here is an aperture, or doorway, 9 ft. high, 2J ft. wide at the bottom, and 3 ft.wide at the top, which admits the visitor into the interior, or chamber, anapartment extending from north to south 6 ft. 6 in., and from east to west 4 ft.in one place, and 2 ft. 6 in. in another place. The remaining crust of the treeis but a few inches thick in some places; the wood, although it has beendead probably for centuries, retains an astonishing degree of hardness, and isthickly perforated by insects. There are only ten live boughs in the head, all

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