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CHAP. CV. CORYLA‘CE. QUE/RCUS. 1759 
30 ft. from the tree, now lies completely buried in the ground. The tree 
stands singly in a very conspicuous situation, on rising ground, and attracts 
the notice of travellers. At Melbury Park, there is an old oak, called Billy 
Wilkins, which is 50 ft. high, spreads 60 ft., and has a trunk 8 ft. high before 
it breaks into branches, which is 30 ft. in circumference at the smallest part, 
and 37 ft. at the collar. It is a remarkably gnarled knotty tree, and is called 
by Mitchell, in his Dendrologia, “as curly, surly, knotty an old- monster as can 
-be conceived ;” though for marble-grained furniture, he adds, it would sell at 
a guinea per foot. 
Essex. The Fairlop Oak stood in an open space of Hainault Forest. “The 
circumference of its trunk, near the ground, was 48 ft.; at 3 ft. high, it measured 
36 ft. round; and the short bole divided into 11 vast branches, not in 
the horizontal manner usual in the oak, but rather with the rise that is more 
generally characteristic of the beech. These boughs, several of which were 
from 10ft. to 12ft.in girt, overspread an area 300 ft. in circuit; and for 
many years a fair was held beneath their shade, no booth of which was al- 
lowed to extend beyond it. This celebrated festival owed its origin to the 
eccentricity of Dartiel Day, commonly called ‘ Good Day,’ who, about 1720, 
was wont to invite his friends to dine with him, the first Friday in July, on beans 
and bacon, under this venerable tree. From this circumstance becoming known, 
the public were attracted to the spot; and about 1725 the fair above mentioned 
was established, and was held for many years onthe 2d of July in each year. 
Mr. Day never failed to provide annually several sacks of beans, which he 
distributed, with a proportionate quantity of bacon, from the hollowed trunk 
of the oak, to the crowds assembled. The project of its patron tended 
greatly, however, to injure his favourite tree; and the orgies annually cele- 
brated to the honour of the Fairlop Oak, yearly curtailed it of its fair pro- 
portions. Some years ago, Mr. Forsyth’s composition was applied to the 
decayed branches of this tree, to preserve it from future injury ; probably by 
the Hainault Archery Society, who held their meetings near it.” (Lysons.) 
At this period, a board was affixed to one of the limbs of this tree, with this 
inscription : — “ All good foresters are requested not to hurt this old tree, a 
plaster having been lately applied to his wounds.” (See Gent.. Mag. for 
1793, p. 792.) Mr. Day had his coffin made of one of the limbs of this tree, 
which was torn off in a storm; and, dying in 1767, at the age of 84, 
he was buried in it in Barking churchyard. The persons assembled at the 
fair frequently mutilated the tree; and it was severely injured by some 
gipsies, who made its trunk their place of shelter. But the most fatal injury 
it received was in 1805, from a party of about sixty cricketers, who had spent 
the day under its shade, and who carelessly left a fire burning too near its 
trunk. The tree was discovered to be on fire about eight in the evening, two 
hours after the cricketers had left the spot; and, though a number of persons, 
with buckets and pails of water, endeavoured to extinguish the flames, the 
tree continued burning till morning. (Gent. Mag., June, 1805, p. 574.) 
“The high winds of February, 1820,” Professor Burnet informs us, “ stretched 
this forest patriarch on the ground, after having endured the storms of per- 
haps 1000 winters. Its remains were purchased by a builder; and from a 
portion thereof the pulpit and reading-desk in the new church, St. Pancras, 
were constructed: they are beautiful specimens of British oak, and will long 
preserve the recollection of this memorable tree.” (Aman. Quer., fol. 15.) 
In Hatfield Broad-Oak, or Takely, Forest, near 
the village of Hatfield, stand the remains of an #96 
old oak, from which the village and forest derive @* = 
their name of Hatfield Broad-Oak. This tree 
( fg. 1593.), in its present state, measures 42 ft. in 
circumference at the base; but, in 1813, before a 
large portion of the bark fell in, it was upwards of 
60 ft. It seems to have been one of those stag- 
headed trees, which are remarkable for the com- 
os ili 
