94 



THE OAK TREE IN ESSEX. 



at Hempstead, but that only one was then standing which was much 

 mutilated and decayed. This venerable tree was supposed to be a 

 thousand years old, and was formerly 99 feet in height : its boughs 

 covered an extent of 36 yards diameter, and its bole 53 feet in cir- 

 cumference. Seven waggon loads of hay have stood under its 

 shelter at one time." The illustration I give represents the tree as it 

 was in 1801 ; it was engraved for the "Gentleman's Magazine," in 

 which journal it appeared in 1802. A part of the tree fell thirty years 

 ago, and has quite disappeared. Another part fell twenty-five years 

 ago, and all that is now to be seen of the old tree is lying in a meadow- 

 adjoining the farm-house of " Great Dawkins." I give an illustration 

 of the ruins of this forest giant. 



Remains of the Great Oak at Hempstead, 



Fairlop Oak. — Another celebrated Essex tree was the Fairlopl 

 Oak, in the Hainault district of Waltham Forest, of which Mr. Gilpin 

 remarks in his " Forest Scenery " : 



" The tradition of the country traces it half way up the Christian era. It is 

 still a noble tree, though it has now suffered greatly from the depredations ol 

 time. About a 3-ard from the ground, where its rough fluted stem is 36 feet in 

 circumference, it divides into eleven vast arms, yet not in the horizontal manner of 

 an oak, but in that of a beech. Beneath its shades which overspread an area of 

 300 feet in circuit, an annual Fair has long been held on the second of July, and 

 no booth is suffered to be erected beyond the extent of its boughs. But as their 

 extremities are now sapless, and age is yearly curtailing their length, the libertic- 

 of the Fair seem to be in a very desponding condition. The honour however i- 

 great. But honours are often accompanied by inconveniences, and Fairlop ha- 

 suffered from its honourable distinctions. In the feasting that usually attends 1 

 fair, fires are often necessary, and no place seemed so proper to make them in a- 

 the hollow cavities formed by the heaving roots of the tree. This practice ha = 

 brought a speedier decay in the Fairlop Oak than it might otherwise have 

 suffered." 



