194 EEV. CANON" GEE WINDSOR EOEEST 



and I am informed that there is no larger in the forest. It is, 

 I may say, of course, a "pollard," for the pollard trees seem to go 

 into bulk as height is denied them. I can measure this tree so as 

 to get quite forty feet in circumference, but it is very knotty and 

 very irregular in growth. It is hollow, and may well be allowed 

 its 800 or 900 years of existence. I may here remark in con- 

 nection with this tree that I have some doubts, when contemplating 

 these huge wrecks, whether they are really one single tree. I 

 remember when in Switzerland going some miles to see the great 

 lime-tree of a village a few miles from Morat, the Burgundian 

 battle-field. I came away with an impression that I had seen 

 five lime-trees ! I doubted whether if the wood were cut through 

 there would not have been found five centres. Trees that grow 

 naturally do grow sometimes into each other. In our forest we 

 know what are called twin-trees. These may sometimes be even 

 of different kinds. I know an oak and a beech which not only 

 associate their branches but almost coalesce at the stems. The 

 explanation is that a fruitful acorn and a beech-mast happened to 

 drop into the same hole, and their produce had to adjust them- 

 selves to circumstances and share a spot out of which neither could 

 prevail to thrust the other. 



j^ear a gate known as the Forest Gate, just outside the Park, 

 stands a tree which may be taken as an example of the inter- 

 mediate condition of an oak, when it is no longer sound but has 

 not begun to be a wreck. It is, say, in the 600th year of its life, 

 answering to that age of man which we kindly call middle age, but 

 as that means about 50 years generally, and no one reckons on having 

 a hundred years, the term is somewhat indulgent. This Forest 

 Gate tree is in circumference 27ft., or even 28ft., according to 

 where you take the measurement. It is low in its branches, and 

 altogether a good specimen of a Windsor Forest oak. 



If you want to complete the gradations and to find an oak of 

 considerable age, with the character of a veteran, but of undi- 

 minished health and undecayed bulk, you must come into the 

 Home Park, and there, in the avenue known as Queen Elizabeth's, 

 you find a tree, the bulk of which you do not realize until you 

 come up to it. Then you find that it is 30ft. in circumference. 

 It is a most interesting mass of solid timber. A limb has been 

 torn from it by some storm or stroke, and the gardener showed me 

 how sound was the wood where the ampiitation had taken place. 

 It is not an elegant tree by any means, and throws out a real limb 

 not more than 4ft. from the ground. It is interesting to know 

 that this tree comes under the almost dailv observation of her 

 Majesty when in Windsor. It stands on the Royal road (a private 

 drive) to Frogmore, where is built the mausoleum so dear to 

 the Eoyal widow. Not far from this tree is another, called the 

 Shakespeare Oak. One would like to think that the great poet 

 had some particular connection with the tree. We know that he 

 was well acquainted with the town. He laid here the scene of one 

 of his plays, and gave it the local colouring which would imply 



