96 THE OAK. 
to Boddington Manor Farm, in the vale of Gloucester. 
The sides of the trunk were more upright than those 
of large trees generally; and at the surface of the 
ground it measured 54 feet in circumference. In 
1788, its trunk was formed into a room which was 
wainscoted, and measured in one direction 16 feet 
in diameter. The hollowness, however, contracts 
upwards, and forms itself into a natural dome. It is 
still perfectly alive and fruitful, having this year 
(1783) a fine crop of acorns upon it. This tree was 
burnt down, either by accident or design, in 1790.” 
“Of the Magdalen, or Great Oak of Oxford, Gilpin 
gives the following interesting notice :—‘Close by 
the gate of the water-walk of Magdalen College, Ox- 
ford, grew an Oak, which, perhaps, stood there a 
sapling when Alfred the Great founded the Univer- 
sity. It is a difficult matter to ascertain the age of a 
tree. The age of a castle or abbey is the object of his- 
tory. But the time occupied in completing its growth 
is not worth recording in the early part of a tree’s 
existence. It is then only a common tree; and after- 
wards, when it is become remarkable for age, all me- 
mory 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. Stuckely tells us, expressly 
ordered his college [Magdalen College] to be founded 
near the Great Oak; and an oak could not, I think, 
be less than 500 years of age to merit that title, to- 
gether with the honor of fixing the site of a college. 
When the magnificence of Cardinal Wolsey erected 
| 
