36 
was a fair representative measurement. To test the capacity of the 
hollow chamber in the centre of the trunk, a number of the members 
crowded into it until it was tightly filled, and as they came out 
it was found that eight-and-twenty full-grown men had been able 
to find standing room in the hollow of the enormous bole. 
The age of this oak is estimated at one thousand years. 
Time gave it seasons and Time gave it years; 
Ages bestowed and centuries grudged not : 
Time knew the sapling when gay summer’s breath 
Shook to the roots the infant oak, which after 
Tempests moved not. Time hollow’d in its trunk 
A tomb for centuries: and buried there 
The epoch of the rise and fall of states, 
The fading generations of the world, 
The memory of men. 
Winbsor Forest. 
Driving onwards through the Forest, we next visited Queen 
Adelaide’s Beech, which evidently was selected and named for 
the splendid view obtained from the spot, by Queen Adelaide, the 
consort of William IV. It is a tall handsome tree, with a clean 
bole girthing 17 feet. In this part of the Forest, outside the 
Ascot gate, are three other Royal trees, all oaks, called respectively 
Queen Anne’s, Queen Charlotte’s, and Queen Victoria’s. The 
two first have a girth of 17 feet; and the latter, which is 
a very handsome tree, with a straight clean stem 36 feet in 
height before it throws out a branch, has a girth of 12 feet. 
In the same neighbourhood, which the time would not permit the 
party to thoroughly explore for fine trees, there are some grand 
old pollarded oaks, supposed to be from eight hundred to one 
thousand years old, and still in a good state of preservation. 
In Cranbourne Chase, at some distance off, it may be also put 
on record, there is an oak said to be the largest in Windsor 
Forest. Mr Simmonds’ book gives the girth of it as being 
35 feet, while the Oxley’s Windsor Guide says 40 feet; but like 
the Conqueror’s Oak, the bole is very irregular and knotty, and the 
difference in the measurements is therefore easily accounted for. 
Retracing our route till we again enter the Park at Forest 
Gate, we strike off eastward through some fine woods of the 
present century, with here and there an ancient remnant of the 
earlier forest standing among them. Anon we reach the breezy 
