as an Element of Landscape* 



24.7 



is almost eighty-five feet, and its principal limb extends six- 

 teen yards from the bole. Throughout the whole tree the 



foliage is extremely thin, so that the anatomy of the ancient 

 branches may be distinctly seen in the height of summer. 

 When compared to this, all other trees are but children of 

 the forest." . (Book iii. p. 500.) 



This description so nearly answers to the present state of 

 the tree, that it does not appear to have suffered any consider- 

 able deprivation since the above period. In girth, indeed, it 

 is inferior to the magnificent remains of the oak in Salcey 

 Forest ; but, altogether, it is a noble and imposing ruin, on 

 which it is impossible to look without entering into the wish 

 suggested to an ingenious writer by the sight of a similar 

 object, and poetically expressed in the following lines : — 



" When the huge trunk, whose bare and forked arms 

 Pierced the mid sky, now prone, shall bud no more, 

 Still let the massy ruin, like the bones 

 Of some majestic hero, be preserved 

 Unviolated and revered ; — 

 Whilst the grey father of the vale, at eve 

 Returning from his sweltering summer task. 

 To tend the new-mown grass, or raise the sheaves 

 Along the western slope of yon grey hill, 



