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Gospel trees in consequence of its having been the practice in 

 times long past to read under a tree which grew upon a boundary- 

 line a portion of the Gospel on the annual perambulation of the 

 bounds of the parish on Ascension Day. In Herrick's poem of 

 the ' Hesperides ' occur these lines in allusion to this practice : — 



" Dearest, bury me 

 Under that holy Oak or Gospel tree, 

 Where, though thou see'st not, thou mayest think upon 

 Me when thou yearly go'st in procession." 



Many of these old trees were doubtless Druidical, and under their 

 •' leafy tabernacles " the pioneers of Christianity had probably 

 preached and expounded the Scriptures to a pagan race. The 

 heathen practice of worshipping the gods in woods and trees 

 continued for many centuries, till the introduction of Christianity ; 

 and the first missionaries sought to adopt every means to elevate 

 the Christian worship to higher authority than that of paganism 

 by acting on the senses of the heathen. St. Augustine, Evelyn 

 tells us, held a kind of council under an Oak in the West of 

 England, concerning the right celebration of Easter and the state 

 of the Anglican church ; " where also it is reported he did a great 

 miracle." On Lord Bolton's estate in the New Forest stands a 

 noble group of twelve Oaks known as the Twelve Apostles : there 

 is another group of Oaks extant known as the Four Evangelists. 

 Beneath the venerable Yews at Fountain Abbey, Yorkshire, the 

 founders of the Abbe}' held their council in 1 132. 



*' Cross Oaks " were so called from their having been planted 

 at the junction of cross roads, and these trees were formerly 

 resorted to by aguish patients, for the purpose of transferring to 

 them their malady. 



Venerable and noble trees have in all ages and in all countries 

 been ever regarded with special reverence. From the very earliest 

 times such trees have been consecrated to holy uses. Thus, 

 the Gomerites, or descendants of Noah, were, if tradition be true, 

 accustomed to offer prayers and oblations beneath trees ; and, 

 following the example of his ancestors, the Patriarch Abraham 

 pitched his tents beneath the Terebinth Oaks of Alamre, erected an 

 altar to the Lord, and performed there sacred and priestly rites. 

 Beneath an Oak, too, the Patriarch entertained the Deity Himself. 

 This tree of Abraham remained till the reign of Constantine the 

 Great, who founded a venerable chapel under it, and there 

 Christians, Jews, and Arabs held solemn anniversary meetings, 

 believing that from the days of Noah the spot shaded by the tree 

 had been a consecrated place. 



Dean Stanley tells us that " on the heights of Ephraim, on the 

 central thoroughfare of Palestine, near the Sanctuary of Bethel, 

 stood two famous trees, both in after times called by the same 

 name. One was the Oak-tree or Terebinth of Deborah, under 

 which was buried, with many tears, the nurse of Jacob 



