315 



The nest Oak measured was one with^a slightly damaged centre 15ft. 2in. 

 in girth, and another 17ft. 2in. , which seems to have been scarred down the 

 side by lightening. Coming back by tbe drive were Oaks giving these figures : — 

 13ft. 9in. ; 16ft. ; 18ft. Sin., with two of its boughs forming a junction with each 

 other ; a double Oak 14ft. lin. and 12ft. ; 18ft. ; 13.2 ; 20ft. ; 13.2 at 4ft. ; 

 12.2 ; 17.7, with a hollow open side ; 17ft. ; 14.8 ; which arrives at the tree next 

 to the Bredwardine Lodge entrance, which measures 20ft. 10in., and sends its 

 roots above ground on every side very curiously. 



Turning up the Park from the lodge the Oaks gave these measurements — 

 20ft. 4in. with execrescences ; 13ft. 6in. ; ISft. 5in., getting hollow but very 

 luxuriant; 18ft. 6in., with a fine crop of Doedalia quercina upon its bole; 

 15ft. 8in. ; 13ft. 8in. ; then a splendid tree in the Park corner 17ft. llin., of a 

 graceful striking character, its diametric foliage spread was 110ft. , and its height 

 was not much less. 



Up the dingle here a "Wych Elm measured 15ft. lin. (the one at the lodge 

 gate measured 12ft 6in.) An Oak with excrescences next measured 19ft. lOin. 

 in girth; a Lime tree 14ft. lOin. ; and tbe " Spring Oak" (from beneath which 

 tree a spring issues forth) measured 10ft. 7in. 



The Tall Oak was then reached, and a magnificent tree it is, clear in 

 stem, graceful in growth, and attaining a very unusual height. One bough has 

 been broken from it, and lies beneath at its foot. Its girth is 18ft. 7in., its 

 height 118ft. , and its foliage spread 110ft. in diameter. A more beautiful tree is 

 rartly to be met with. It well bears out Ovid's comment on the Oak : 



" Stabat in his ingens annoso robore quercus 

 Una nemus." 



In aged majesty a mighty oak 



Towers o'er tbe subject trees, itself a grove. 



The tape then went round a series of Oaks, with these results : 13ft. 4in. ; 

 slightly hollow; 16ft. lOin. ; 15ft. llin. ; 15ft. 6in. ; 14ft. 4in., twisted in growth ; 

 16ft. 9in. ; 18ft. 7in. ; 15ft. 5in. ; 16ft. lOin. ; 17ft. 2in. ; a wreck, 15ft. llin. ; 

 and another 17ft. 3in. in circumference. 



The Moccas Oak, so well known, and so often described and figured, was 

 next visited. Strutt, in the " Sylva Britannica," gives a good engraving of it, 

 and says " The Moccas Park Oak is thirty- six feet in circumference at three 

 feet from the ground. It stands in the park of Moccas Court, the seat of Sir 

 George Atnyand Cornewall, Bart., who times his ancestry from Kichard, second 

 son of King John, Earl of Cornewall, and King of the Romans. The whole 

 estate from the very nature of its situation, forming part of the borders between 

 England and Wales, is fraught with historical associations, which extend them- 

 selves, with pleasing interest, to this ancient ' Monarch of the Wood,' among 

 whose boughs the war cry has often reveberated in former ages, and who has 

 witnessed many a fierce contention, under our Henries and our Edwards, hand 



