146 The Forest Trees of Wilishire. 
and almost leafless shell, still majestic even in the last state of 
decay. What more impressive spectacle can be seen? Where 
can mortal man find a sight more calculated to fill his soul with 
thoughts of Heaven, and to inspire him with admiration, love, and 
reverence for his great Creator? What human being is there 
whose mind would not be turned from earth to Heaven by scenes, 
the mere contemplation of which would not only fill him with 
gratitude for such “ Altars,” but remind him of that promised 
land, the glories of which will so immeasurably surpass anything 
here below, and which will be the reward of those who shall serve 
their Maker in sincerity and in truth. With such sights around, 
who would not join in the apostrophe of the dying Hebrew, thus 
sweetly rendered by one of England’s most gifted authors,— 
‘In this great Temple built by Thee, 
Whose Altars are divine, 
Beneath yon Lamp, that, ceaselessly, 
Lights up Thine own true Shrine, 
Oh! take my latest sacrifice,— 
Look down and make this sod 
Holy as that where, long ago, 
The Hebrew met his Gop!” 
At Tottenham, in that part of the forest that lies between the 
Column and the spot where Savernake Lodge once stood, number- 
less oaks will be found of from fifteen up to twenty feet and more 
in circumference, and of great height; vigorous, sound, and still 
growing trees. Among the patriarchs are some, which, though hol- 
low, and greatly broken and disfigured by the loss of immense limbs 
and branches, are noble relics of the past. Of these, two may be par- 
ticularly mentioned,—the “ King’s Oak,” and the “ Duke’s Vaunt,” 
each measuring, at five feet from the ground, about twenty-five 
feet in circumference. In another part of the forest is the 
** Decanter Oak,” (so called from its singular form, which somewhat 
resembles an old fashioned decanter) it is of about equal girth with 
the two first named. Nor is Longleat less famous for its oaks, 
There, too, are numbers of as noble specimens as any one can desire 
to see. Trees of all ages, and almost of all sizes, though certainly 
none equal to the famed “ Golynos Oak,” which, although measuring 
