18 NATURAL HISTORY 
in old times, a vast oak,* with a short squat body, 
and huge horizontal arms extending almost to the 
extremity of the area. This venerable tree, sur- 
rounded with stone steps, and seats above them, 
was the delight of old and young, and a place of 
much resort in summer evenings, where the former 
sat in grave debate, while the latter frolicked and 
* This oak was probably planted by the prior in the year 1271, 
as an ornament to his newly-acquired market-place. According 
to this supposition, the oak was aged four hundred and thirty 
years when blown down.—WhiTE’s Antiquities of Selborne. 
out Gurdon, ran him down, wounded him, and took him prisoner. There 
is not, perhaps, in all history a more remarkable instance of command of 
temper and magnanimity than this before us: that a young prince, in the 
moment of victory, when he had the fell adversary of the crown and roy- 
al family at his mercy, should be able to withhold his hand from that ven- 
geance which the vanquished so well deserved. A cowardly disposition 
would have been blinded by resentment; but this gallant heir-apparent 
saw at once a method of converting a most desperate foe into a lasting 
friend. He raised the fallen veteran from the ground, he pardoned him, 
he admitted him into his confidence, and introduced him to the queen, then 
lying at Guildford. that very evening. This unmerited and unexpected 
lenity melted the heart of the rugged Gurdon at once: he became, in an 
instant, a loyal and useful subject, trusted and employed in matters of 
moment by Edward when king, and confided in ull the day of his death. 
—Wuitr’s Antiquities of Selborne. 
