boydell's traction engine and endless railway. 



" The Oak appears early to have been an object of worship among the Celts and 

 ancient Britons. Under the form of this tree, the Celts worshipped their god 

 Taet, and the Britons Tarnawa, their god of thunder. Baal, the Celtic god of 

 fire, whose festival (that of Yule) was kept at Christmas, was also worshipped 

 under the semblance of an Oak. The Druids professed to maintain perpetual 

 fire, and once every year all the fires belonging to the people were extinguished, 

 and relighted from the sacred fire of their priests. This was the origin of the 

 Yule log, with which, even so lately as the middle of last century, the Christmas 

 fire, in some parts of the country, was always kindled, a fresh log being thrown 

 on and lighted, but taken off before it was consumed, and reserved to kindle the 

 Christmas fire of the following year. The Yale log was always of Oak, and as 

 the ancient Britons believed that it was essential for their hearth fires to be renewed 

 every year from the sacred fire of the Druids, so their descendants thought that 

 some misfortune would befall them if any accident happened to the Yule log. 



" The worship of the Druids was generally performed under an Oak, and a heap 

 of stones or cairn was erected, on which the sacred fire was kindled. Before the 

 ceremony of gathering the mistletoe, the Druids fasted for several days, and offered 

 sacrifices in wicker baskets or frames, which, however, were not of willow, but of 

 Oak twigs, curiously interwoven, and were similar to that still carried by -Jack-in- 

 the-green on May-day, which, according to some, is a relic of Druidism. The 

 well known chorus of ' Hey, derry down,' according to Professor Burnet, was a 

 Druidic chant, signifying, literally : ' In a circle, the Oak move around.' Crimi- 

 nals were tried under an Oak-tree, the judge, with the jury, being seated under its 

 shade, and the culprit placed in a circle made by the chief Druid's wand. The 

 Saxons also held their national meetings under an Oak, and the celebrated con- 

 ference between the Saxons and the Britons, after the invasion of the former, was 

 held under the Oaks of Dartmoor." {To be continued.') 



BOYDELL'S TRACTION ENGINE AND ENDLESS 



RAILWAY. 



On Wednesday, May 21, we joined the company which went to Wimbish Hall 

 Farm, to witness the trial of a machine that, beyond a doubt, is one of those 

 inventions destined to supersede, to a certain extent, the most ancient implement 

 of husbandry, the dextrous management of which has hitherto constituted the 

 proudest achievement of the agricultural laborer, and the glory of the farmer. 

 Notwithstanding the claims that prescription confers upon this old and favorite 

 servant, simplified and perfected as it has been by science, and beautified by artistic 

 skill, its condemnation as a cultivator solely dependent for its application upon 

 animal power, is sufficiently insured to render its decline but a question of time. 

 Ere long, it must be allied with, or superseded by, the monster energy of steam in 

 place of horse power. 



Wimbish Hall is situated at the distance of four miles from Saffron Waldeu, in 

 Essex. On the farm on which the trial of the Traction Engine took place, the 

 soil consists of a strong, very strong clay, common to the district, but having a 

 subsoil of a mixture of clay, sand, and marl. The field on which we found the 

 machine at work, was, perhaps, as unfavorable a one, for the success of the trial, 

 as could have been selected in the whole kingdom. With a soil naturally heavy, 

 adhesive, and intractable, it had, as a matter of course, been latterly neglected 

 by the out-going tenant ; and, being under a dead, uutilled fallow, was sufficiently 

 baked by the sun, wind, and rain, alternately, to make it difficult enough to 



:;^1 



YoL. VII. — September, 1857. 27 



