1768 ARBORETUM AND FRUTICETUM. PART III. © 
time gradually completing its growth is not worth recording in the early part 
of its existence. It is then only a common tree; and afterwards, when it be- 
comes remarkable for age, all memory of its youth is lost. This tree, however, 
can almost produce historical evidence for the age it boasts. About 500 
years after the time of Alfred, William of Waynfleet, Dr. Stukely tells us, ex- 
pressly ordered his college [Magdalen College] to be founded near the Great 
Oak (Itin. Curios.) ; and an oak could not, I think, be less than 500 years of 
age to merit that title, together with the honour of fixing the site of a college. 
When the magnificence of Cardinal Wolsey erected that handsome tower 
which is so ornamental to the whole building, this tree might probably be in 
the meridian of its glory; or rather, perhaps, it had attained a green old age. 
But it must have been manifestly in its decline at that memorable era, when 
the tyranny of James gave the fellows of Magdalen so noble an opportunity of 
withstanding bigotry and superstition. It was afterwards much injured in the 
reign of Charles II., when the present walks were laid out. Its roots were 
disturbed; and from that period it declined fast, and became reduced to a 
mere trunk. The oldest members of the university can hardly recollect it in 
better plight ; but the faithful records of history have handed down its an- 
cient dimensions. (See Dr. Plot’s History of Oxfordshire.) Through a space of 
16 yards on every side from its trunk, it once flung its boughs; and under its mag- 
nificent pavilion could have sheltered with ease 3000 men. In the summer 
of 1788, this magnificent ruin fell to the ground. It then appeared how 
precariously it had stood for many years. The grand taproot was decayed, 
and ‘it had a hold of the earth only by two or three rootlets, of which none ex- 
ceeded a couple of inches in diameter. From a part of its ruins a chair has 
been made for the president of the college, which will long continue its 
memory.” (For. Scen., i. p. 140.) 
Shropshire. The Shelton Oak ( fig. 1611.), growing near Shrewsbury, mea- 
sured, in 1810, as follows :— Girt, close to the ground, 44 ft. 3in,; 5 ft. from 
the ground, 25 ft. 1 in.; 8 ft. from the ground, 27 ft. 4in.; height to the prin- 
cipal bough, 41 ft. Gin. (Gent. Mag., Oct. 1810.) The e 
tree was very much decayed in 1813, and had a hollow at 
the bottom sufficient to hold with ease half adozen persons. <3 
( Beauties of England and Wales ; Shropshire,179.) This oak gi 
was celebrated for Owen Glendower having mounted on it = 
to observe the battle of Shrewsbury, fought on June 21. “e" 
1403, between Henry IV. and Harry Percy. The battle had SS 
commenced before Glendower arrived; and he ascended 1611 
the tree to see how the day was likely to go. Finding that 
Hotspur was beaten, and the force of the king was overpowering, he retired 
with his 12,000 men to Oswestry. We have received the following account 
of the present state of this remarkable oak from John F. M. Dovaston, Esq., 
M.A., of Westfelton, near Shrewsbury : — - 
“ To the numerous descriptions and histories of this venerable and venerated 
tree there remains little more necessary to add, than that, of late years, it has 
shown but slow tendency to farther decay ; and that it is now somewhat pro- 
tected by having been taken within the grounds of a very chastely ornamented 
house, built in the ancient fancy Gothic, by Robert Burton, Esq., whose very 
pure taste, and extensive improvements, have made the elevated and conspi- 
cuous village of Shelton one of the most beautiful in a county eminent for 
the beauty of its villages. With regard to the far-famed tree itself, however, 
there may be some who will think it has lost much of its grotesque and com- 
manding wildness, now surrounded with shrubberies, dressed grass-plots, and 
gravel walks; since it towered with rude but majestic grandeur over groups 
of gipsies, cattle, or casual figures, amid the furze, bushes, and wild-flowers 
of a rough uncultured heath.” It has lately received a poetical inscription 
-from the pen of Mr. Dovaston. 
Staffordshire. The Royal Oak of Boscobel, in which Charles II. took re- 
fuge after the battle of Worcester, was prematurely destroyed by an ill-judged 
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