1778

ARBORETUM AND FRUTICETUM.

PART III.

each; making a total of 2426 cubic feet of convertible timber. The bark wasestimated at 6 tons; but, as some of the very heavy body bark was stolen outof the barge at Newport, the exact weight is not known. Five men were20 days stripping and cutting down this tree; and two sawyers were 5 monthsconverting it, without losing a day, Sundays excepted. The main trunk was9J ft. in diameter; and, in sawing it through, a stone was discovered 6 ft. fromthe ground, above a yard in the body of the tree, through which the saw cut.The stone was about 6 in. in diameter, and was completely shut in; but aroundit there was not the least symptom of decay. The rings in the but were care-fully counted, and amounted to upwards of four hundred in number; a con-vincing proof that this tree was in an improving state for upwards of fourhundred years; and, as the ends of some of its branches were decayed, andhad dropped off, it is presumed that it had stood a great number of years afterit had attained maturity. {Literary Panorama for August, 1815; and Gent.Mag. for October, 1817, p. 305.) The Northwick Oak, Blockley, Worces-tershire, which, when felled, was about 300 years old, had a girth, at 5 ft.from the ground, of 21ft.; its smallest girth was 18 ft.; height to thebranches, 30 ft.; solid contents of the body, 234 ft.; and of the arms, 200 ft.{Gent. Mag., 1791, p. 612.) The oak which was felled in Withy Park, nearWenlock in Shropshire, in 1697, spread 114 ft.: the trunk was 9 ft. in diameter,exclusive of the bark. “ It contained 24 cords of yard wood, 11 i cords of4ft. wood; 252 park pales 6ft. long; 1 load of cooper’s wood; batons oftimber in the boughs; 28 tons of timber in the body; and all this besides fag-gots, notwithstanding several boughs had dropped off' in Mr. Wilde’s father’sand grandfather’s time. The stem was so wide, that two men could thrash on itwithout striking each other. Several trees which grew at Cunsborough werebought by a cooper at 10/. per yard, for 9 ft. or 10 ft. high; and RalphArchdall felled a tree in Sheffield Park of 13 ft. diameter at the kerf; andthere was another, standing near the old ford, of 10 yards in compass.” {Hunt.Evel.,\\. p. 194.) In the hall in Goodrich Castle, Herefordshire, there is, saysGrose, a beam of oak, without a knot, 66 ft. long, and near 2 ft. square thewhole length. Evelyn mentions a large oaken plank, cut from a tree felled byhis grandfather’s order, at Wootton, 5 ft. wide, 9 ft. 6 in. in length, and 6 in.thick, all entire and clear; and Dr. Plot notices a table in Dudley Castle hall,already mentioned (p. 1777.), which was cut out of a tree which grew in thepark, all of one plank, above 75 ft. long, and 3 ft. wide throughout its wholeextent; and which, being too long for the castle hall, 7 yards 9 in. were obligedto be cut off. The mainmast of the Royal Sovereign, built in Charles I.’s time,was 100 ft. long, save one, and within 1 in. of a yard in thickness, all of onepiece of oak : several of the beams of the same ship were 44 ft. in length, 4 ofwhich were cut from an oak which grew in Framlingham, in Suffolk. Slarcen-nas states that the great ship called the Craven, which was built in France, hadits keel timbers 120 ft. long, and the mainmast 85 ft. high, and 12 ft. in diameterat the base. An oak is mentioned as fallen in Sheffield Park, of so great agirth, that, when the trunk lay flat on level ground, two men on horseback, onopposite sides, could not see the crowns of each other’s hats. Dr. Plot recordsa similar circumstance as noticed of another immense oak at Newbury, which,he says, was 15 yards in girth. The Lord’s Oak, at Rivelin, was 12 yardsabout, and the top yielded 21 cords of wood; its diameter, 3 yards 28in.The Lady Oak was 5 ft. square for 40 ft., contained 42 tons of timber, andits boughs gave 25 cords of fuel; and another, in the Hall Park, close by, gave18 yards, without bough or knot; being 3 ft. 6 in. square at top, and not muchbigger near the root. Arthur’s round table must, as Gilpin observes, havebeen cut from a tree of immense girth, as it measures, according to Grose,18 ft. in diameter. Now, this is. 18ft. of solid heart wood ; and, if the depth ofsap wood, in which it must have been environed, be taken into the account,we shall have the dimensions of a most enormous tree. Out of such oaks asthese must those ancient canoes, described by Sir Joseph Bankes as exhumod