THE OAK TRKE IN ESSEX. 



103 



able one which gave the name of Broad Oak to Hatfield." Young 

 gives an illustration of the oak as it was in his day (fig. 11), and in 

 The Essex Naturalist for 1890 (vol. iv., p. 218) Mr. H. A. Cole 

 has a drawing of the tree as it then appeared. 



Whilst agreeing with Alorant that a tree old enough to have 

 given the name " Broad Oak " to the parish in the days of the 

 Anglo-Saxons, would probably not have endured another 1,000 

 years, yet his implication that the " Doodle Oak" is comparatively 

 modern is equally wide of the mark, for the " Doodle Oak " must 

 certainly, even in the days of Alorant, have been some centuries old. 

 Loudon says : — 



'•In Hatfield Broad Oak stands the remains of an old oak from 

 which the village and forest derive their name of Hatfield Broad 

 Oak, measuring 42rt. in circumference at base, but in 1813, before a 

 large portion of the trunk fell in, it was upwards of 60 feet. The 

 age of the tree is unknown, but cannot be less than seven or eight 

 centuries."' 



Barringtoii Hall Oaks. — The park round Barrington Hall, 

 close to Hatfield Forest, formerly the mansion of Sir John Barrington, 

 now the property of G. Alan Lowndes, Esq., J. P., still contains some 

 magnificent timber. One tree (fig. 12) has a trunk measuring 29ft. 

 6in. circumference of its bole. Another tree is one of the finest 

 examples of the oak tree in full vigour of growth which our county 



Fig. 12. — Oak at Barrington Hall, Hatfield Broad Oak. 

 Bole., 2g ft. 6 i?is. in ch cwiiference . 



