1768

ARBORETUM AND FRUTJCETUM.

part hi.

time gradually completing its growth is not worth recording in the early partof its existence. It is then only a common tree; and afterwards, when it be-comes remarkable for age, all memory of its youth is lost. This tree, however,can almost produce historical evidence for the age it boasts. About 500years after the time of Alfred, William of Waynfleet, Dr. Stukely tells us, ex-pressly ordered his college [Magdalen College] to be founded near the GreatOak ( Itin. Curios.') -, and an oak could not, I think, be less than 500 years ofage to merit that title, together with the honour of fixing the site of a college.When the magnificence of Cardinal Wolsey erected that handsome towerwhich is so ornamental to the whole building, this tree might probably be inthe meridian of its glory; or rather, perhaps, it had attained a green old age.But it must have been manifestly in its decline at that memorable era, whenthe tyranny of James gave the fellows of Magdalen so noble an opportunity ofwithstanding bigotry and superstition. It was afterwards much injured in thereign of Charles II. , when the present walks were laid out. Its roots weredisturbed; and from that period it declined fast, and became reduced to amere trunk. The oldest members of the university can hardly recollect it inbetter plight; but the faithful records of history have handed down its an-cient dimensions. ( See Dr. Plot’s History of Oxfordshire.) Through a space of16 yards on every side from its trunk, it once flung its boughs; and under its mag-nificent pavilion could have sheltered with ease 3000 men. In the summerof 1788, this magnificent ruin fell to the ground. It then appeared howprecariously it had stood for many years. The grand taproot was decayed,and it had a hold of the earth only by two or three rootlets, of which none ex-ceeded a couple of inches in diameter. From a part of its ruins a chair hasbeen made for the president of the college, which will long continue itsmemory.” (For. Seen., i. p. 140.)

Shropshire . The Shelton Oak (fig. 1611.), growing near Shrewsbury , mea-sured, in 1810, as follows : — Girt, close to the ground, 44ft. Sin, ; 5ft. fromthe ground, 25 ft. 1 in.; 8 ft. from the ground, 27 ft. 4 in.; height to the prin-cipal bough, 41ft. 6 in. (Gent. Mag., Oct. 1810.) Thetree was very much decayed in 1813, and had a hollow atthe bottom sufficient to hold with ease half a dozen persons.

(Beauties of England and Wales ; Shropshire , 179.) This oakwas celebrated for Owen Glen dower having mounted on it :to observe the battle of Shrewsbury, fought on June 21.

1403, between Henry IV. and Harry Percy . The battle hadcommenced before Glendower arrived; and he ascendedthe tree to see how the day was likely to go. Finding thatHotspur was beaten, and the force of the king was overpowering, he retiredwith his 12,000 men to Oswestry . We have received the following accountof the present state of this remarkable oak from John F. M. Dovaston, Esq.,M.A., of Westfelton, near Shrewsbury : —

“ To the numerous descriptions and histories of this venerable and veneratedtree there remains little more necessary to add, than that, of late years, it hasshown but slow tendency to farther decay; and that it is now somewhat pro-tected by having been taken within the grounds of a very chastely ornamentedhouse, built in the ancient fancy Gothic, by Robert Burton, Esq., whose verypure taste, and extensive improvements, have made the elevated and conspi-cuous village of Shelton one of the most beautiful in a county eminent torthe beauty of its villages. With regard to the far-famed tree itself, however,there may be some who will think it has lost much of its grotesque and com-manding wildness, now surrounded with shrubberies, dressed grass-plots, angravel walks ; since it towered with rude but majestic grandeur °y® r | r0U ^of gipsies, cattle, or casual figures, amid the furze, bushes, and wild-iloweof a rough uncultured heath.” It has lately received a poetical inscriptiofrom the pen of Mr. Dovaston. .

Staffordshire . The Royal Oak of Boscobel, in which Charles II . toofuge after the battle of Worcester , was prematurely destroyed by an ul-J u o

1611