OAK 107 



King Ina, amongst the few laws that he enacted to regulate 

 the simple economy of our Saxon ancestors gave particular 

 directions concerning these panage rights. Injuring or 

 destroying trees was by him made penal/ the fine being 

 thirty shillings, a large sum at that time, unless the tree 

 were large enough for thirty hogs to stand beneath it, 

 when the penalty was doubled. Offa, King of Mercia, the 

 treacherous assassin of Ethelbert, King of East Anglia, 

 gave to atone for his many sins, a large piece of land to the 

 See of Canterbury, in pascua ponorum, for the pasturage 

 of the swine of the Archbishop. Deeds of Edward the 

 Confessor and other sovereigns are yet extant where this 

 panage forms an important item in the gift of land or the 

 transfer of its ownership. 



The oak is particularly subject to attack by various 

 small creatures, and in consequence bears not acorns alone, 

 but many abnormal growths — oak-galls, oak-apples, oak- 

 spangles, and not a few others. One of the commonest 

 of these is figured in our illustration. Bacon, in his 

 Sylva Sylvarum, declares that " there is no Tree, which 

 besides the Naturall Fruit, doth beare so many Bastard 

 Fruits as the Oake doth : For besides the Acorne, it 

 beareth Galls, Oake-Apples, and certaine Oak-Nuts, which 

 are Inflammable : x^nd certaine Oake-Berrie, sticking close 

 to the Body of the Tree, without Stalke. It beareth also 

 Mistletoe, though rarely. The Cause of all these may 

 be, the Closenesse and Solidnesse of the Wood, and Pith 



' In like manner, in the Mosaic dispensation, it was enacted that even 

 in an enemy's country and in time of war " thou shall not destroy the trees 

 thereof, by forcing an axe against them ; thou mayest eat of them, but thou 

 shalt not cut them down, for the tree of the field is man's life." 



