Quercus Pedunculata— the British Oak. 



TiiK oak tree has been specially venerated from the earliest ages, 

 Under tlie Oak of ^Yeeping, " A//onahchiifh," Deliorali was Iniried 

 in the year B.C. 1732. Saul and Jonathan were also buried under 

 an oak. Absalom's head was caught in the brandies of an oak. 

 Abimelech was crowned under an oak at Shecheni. Under an 

 oak tree Jacob hid the idols of his wives. The Arabs still use 

 the oak for the burial-place of their sheikhs. Large oaks have 

 at all times been the favourite resort for the performance of religious 

 rites. Coming to the oaks of the present age, we have the one 

 from which glanced the arrow that killed William Paifus on the 

 2nd August, 1100, still lingering to the fore, and which nnist have been 

 a tree of some size even then. The " Ball Oak," Wedgenock Park, 

 the " Cowthorpe Oak," and the " Plester Oak," are supposed to be 

 of nearly the same era as the Xorman Conquest. The " I^arliamcnt 

 Oak," in Clipstone Park, is supposed to be 1,500 years old. Its 

 name arose from Edward I. holding his parliament under its 

 branches. "The Duke's Walking-stick," at Welbeck Abbey, is 

 112 feet high, and the Greendale Oak covers a space of 700 

 square yards, with a coach road cut through it. " The Two Porters " 

 are 100 feet high. "The Seven Sisters" have seven stems 90 feet 

 in height. Tlie largest oak in England is at Cowthorpe, Yorkshire. 

 It measures 78 feet round where it meets the ground. In 1810 an 

 oak was felled near Newport, jMonmouthshire, measuring 281 feet in 

 circumference, and supposed to be 400 years old ; the timl)er sold 

 at £070, and its bark for £200. A very curiou.s oak was found in 

 a forest near Pjaden-lkden in 1818. It was formed of two distinct 

 trunks, springing from one bole, and again uniting and forming a 

 perfect tree. During tlie early ages, when the country was under 

 the sway of the Druids, the oak was held in high veneration by the 

 people. The mistletoe of the oak was called "All-heal," being 

 considered a remedy for all diseases, and as such was much used in 

 later times. 



'• A glorious tree is the old grey oak ; 



He has stood for a thousand years — 

 Stood and frowned on the wood around, 



Jjikc a tcing among liis peers." 



J'lttitirj from Lnn Flit's Scrnp-hool-. 



