CHAP. CV. CORYLA‘CER. QUERCUS. 1791 
1629 
undoubted lord of the forest. Beauty, united with strength, characterises all 
its parts. The leaves, elegant in their outline, are strongly ribbed, and firmly 
attached to the spray, which, although thin and excursive, is yet bold and de- 
termined in its angles; whilst the abrupt and tortuous irregularity of its mas- 
sive branches admirably contrasts with the general richness and density of its 
clustered foliage. Even as a sapling, in its slender gracefulness it exhibits 
sufficient firmness and indications of vigour to predicate the future monarch 
of the wood; a state, indeed, which it is slow to assume, but which it retains 
per secula longa ; and when at length it is brought to acknowledge the in- 
fluence of time, and becomes ‘bald with dry antiquity,’ no other production 
of the forest can be admitted as bn 1630 
its rival in majestic and venerable “2 
decay. The general form of the 
oak is expansive, luxuriant, and 
spreading. Its character, both 
with respect to its whole and 
to its larger masses of foliage, is 
best expressed by the pencil, in 
bold and roundish lines, whether 
as single trees, as groups (jig. 
1630.), or as forming the line of 
a distant forest ( figs. 1629. and 
1631.) ; although, when growing 
more closely together, they assume a loftier and less spreading appearance 
than the more solitary tree, such as Mason has so beautifully described in 
his Caractacus : — 
—— ‘ Behold yon oak, 
How stern he frowns, and with his broad brawn arms 
Chills the pale plain beneath him!’ ” 
1631 as ye = ot 
The sketches figs. 1632. and 1633., which are also drawn by Mr. Strutt, 
will more distinctly exemplify his position; exhibiting, in distinct distances, 
the same general appearance in the contour of the trees. Of these sketches, 
6A 
