246 The Oak Tree^ considet^ed 



these mosses you often find a species almost perfectly white. 

 Before I was acquainted with it, I have sometimes thought 

 the tree white-washed. Here and there, a touch of it gives a 

 lustre to the trunk, and has its effect : yet, on the whole, it is 

 a nuisance ; for, as it generally begins to thrive when the other 

 mosses begin to wither (as if the decaying bark were its 

 proper nutriment), it is rarely accompanied with any of the 

 more beautiful species of its kind; and, when thus unsup- 

 ported, it always disgusts. This white moss, by the way, is 

 esteemed a certain mark of age, and when it prevails in any 

 degree, is a clear indication that the vigour of the tree is de- 

 clining. We find, also, another species of moss, of a dark 

 brown colour, inclining nearly to black ; another of an ashy 

 colour; and another of a dingy yellow. We may observe 

 also touches of red, and sometimes, but rarely, a bright yel- 

 low, which is like a gleam of sunshine; and in many trees you 

 will see one species growing upon another, the knotted brim- 

 stone-coloured fringe clinging to a lighter species, or the 

 black softening into red. All these excrescences, under what- 

 ever names distinguished, add a great richness to trees ; and 

 when they are blended harmoniously, as is generally the case, 

 the rough and furrowed trunk of an old oak, adorned with 

 these pleasing appendages, is an object which will long detain 

 the picturesque eye.'* 



As it is thus more particularly in old age that the oak is 

 valuable to the painter, we shall conclude the present article 

 with a description of the Cowthorpe oak, extracted from the 

 S^lva Britdnnica, together with a portrait of the tree from a 

 drawing made upon the spot. {Jig. 102.) 



This gigantic and venerable tree stands on the extremity 

 of the village of Cowthorpe, near Wetherby, in Yorkshire, in 

 a retired field, sheltered on one side by the ancient church 

 belonging to the place, and on another by a farm-house, the 

 rural occupations of which exactly accord with the character 

 of the oak, whose aged arms are extended towards it with a 

 peculiar air of rustic vigour, retained even in decay ; like some 

 aged peasant, whose toil-worn limbs still give evidence of 

 the strength which enabled him to acquit himself of the labours 

 of his youth. It is mentioned by the late Dr. Hunter, in his 

 edition of Evelyn's S^lva, in the following note on a passage 

 respecting the extraordinary size of an oak in Sheffield Park : 

 " Neither this, nor any of the oaks mentioned by Mr. Evelyn, 

 bears any proportion to one now growing at Cowthorpe. The 

 dimensions are almost incredible. Within three feet of the 

 ground it measures sixteen yards, and close by the ground 

 twenty-six yards. Its height, in its present ruinous state ( 1 776), 



