AND ITS FAMOUS TREES. 195 



local knowloilgo. He must have scon it, for it is not far from the 

 spot of Falstaff's latest disaster, or at least defeat. 



I may now, with reference to the introduction of Eoyalty, 

 mention what are known in our forest as the lioyal trees. There 

 are four such. They are regularly so assigned. Each has an 

 iron tablet indicating the Queen — for they are all queenly — under 

 whose name at least they still flourish. These are Queen Anne's, 

 Queen Charlotte's, Queen Adelaide's, and Queen Victoria's 

 trees. I wish I could find some authentic account of the special 

 interest taken by the two first-named Queens in their proteges. 

 I am not honestly possessed of siich information. The trees are 

 older than even Queen Anne. Tlie most we can assert is that 

 " Great Anna" or "Good Charlotte" may have specially admired 

 these trees, and that in their time a clearing was made round them 

 and honour paid to them. The times of Queen Adelaide and 

 Queen Victoria are so recent that we can easily understand that 

 particular trees were not assigned to them without their cognizance, 

 or labelled as such without their permission. Three of the four 

 trees are oaks, and her present Majesty has shown her judgment 

 in selecting the tree that bears her name. It is a magnificently- 

 grown tree, and has a stem like the mast of a ship. It runs up 

 some 35 feet before throwing out its branches, and, as it now 

 measures only 12 feet in circumference, has we hope a far future 

 before it. Perhaps her Majesty purposely chose a young tree. 

 Queen Charlotte's is 17 feet and Queen Anne's all but the same 

 measurement. Queen Adelaide's tree is a beech ; not to compare, 

 as a timber-tree, with some other beeches in the same neighbour- 

 hood. It was obviously chosen for the sake of the view from the 

 spot. On a clear day there is a charming picture presented of the 

 Castle. You see its west inclosure rising before you with all the 

 outline of a mediceval fortress, and on that side there are the oldest 

 masonry and the earliest outlines. I may mention, to save dis- 

 appointment, that not one of these trees is discoverable by a 

 stranger, and only one of them stands in a legitimately-accessible 

 locality. A lover of famous trees will have to make love to a 

 keeper if he wish to be introduced to them. 



There is another tree connected with that gentle lady, Queen 

 Adelaide, which I should like to make known to you. It is called 

 Luther's beech, and it is a child of the original beech at Altenstein, 

 in Saxe-Meiningen, under which Luther was seized by a friendly 

 arrest and conveyed to the Castle of "Wartzburg. This tree was 

 seemingly very dear to Queen Adelaide. King William the Fourth 

 brought it from Germany. It was for some time planted in Bushey 

 Park while that was her home. It was removed with her to 

 Windsor, and has found its abiding location close to her own 

 particular little settlement called Queen Adelaide's Cottage, having 

 been bequeathed by will with a request to that effect. It has an 

 iron tablet describing its kind, and relating the extraction or origin 

 which gives it interest. The original tree at Altenstein was 

 destroyed by lightning in 1841. 



