339 



The visitors left Monmouth with pleasing memories of their kind reception 

 at the hands of Dr. and Mrs. Willis. 



From Monmouth (Troy) the line passes through pretty river and woodland 

 scenery, with occasional peeps of valleys in its gradual ascent towards Newland. 

 At Newland Mrs. Wm. Bagnall Oakley met the party, and carriages from the 

 Speech House were in readiness to convey the members to the next object of 

 interest — the Great Oak Tree, growing in a field the property of Mr. Charles T. 

 Palmer, of Newland House, visible at a distance of two or three hundred yards on 

 the right hand side of the read leading to the church ; visible also as a veritable 

 monster from the railway carriages on the right hand immediately after leaving 

 Newland station, at a distance of about a quarter of a mile. 



A short walk brought the members to this field, where a path, mown 

 through the tall grass, led to the patriarch which, unfolding " the history of many 

 a winter's storm," remains the solitary survivor of the fittest in the original Forest 

 of Dean. 



Upon arrival at the tree, a tape was passed round it. Fair measurements 

 gave 45 feet 6 inches at the base, and 43 feet 6 inches at a height of 5 feet from the 

 ground, being (at this height) more than five feet in excess of the noble oak at 

 Cowthorpe, near Wetherby, in Yorkshire, which measures 38 feet 4^ inches at 5 

 feet from the ground. The Cowthorpe Oak, from measurements taken by Dr. 

 Bainbridge, has a circumference of 78 feet at its roots ; the trunk immediately 

 commences to taper, having at 3 feet from the ground a girth of 48 feet, whereas 

 the trunk of the Newland Oak tree represents a massive cylinder of almost the 

 same dimensions, say an average girth of 43 feet for a height of ten to twelve feet. 

 A drawing of the Cowthorpe Oak tree, from the pencil of Dr. Bainbridge, 

 exhibited, in a drawing in his sketch-book, the glories of this magnificent tree 

 with its stupendous overspreading boughs. Some estimate of what it was in its 

 prime may be formed by the knowledge that, in the year 1718, a large bough was 

 rent off which weighed five tons and 110 pounds. The tree is now hollow, with an 

 inside diameter of 17 feet. The Newland Oak tree presents externally a solid 

 trunk, but on climbing the pollard, it was reported to have a cavity filled with 

 dead leaves. Vestiges remain of the bases of its former powerful limbs, with 

 which time and tempests have played such havoc, but none of the existing limbs 

 called for special remark, or specially invited measurement, in fact its canopy or 

 area of overspreading is deficient. The Newland Oak tree is of the variety 

 Qttercus pedunculata ; it is said to be mentioned in Domesday, but upon whose 

 authority cannot be ascertained ; it may safely be said that it is not mentioned 

 in Domesday. It may perhaps be considered as old as the Cowthorpe Oak, 

 but in absence of data, a calculation cannot be made with anything like 

 accuracy. Experts have estimated the Cowthorpe Oak to be 1660 years old ; 

 we should like to know whether this calculation was based upon the number of 

 concentric rings in the bough which fell in the year 1718. As regards the age of 

 the Newland Oak we will not venture to say more than that we believe it to have 

 outspanned the twelve hundred years allotted in the foUowing quaint lines, thus 

 versified by Miss Jane Williams : 



