38 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
of the kingdom. Hastily summoning a council of the barons and 
other distinguished individuals who were about his person or in 
the immediate vicinity of the palace, they met under the boughs 
of an oak tree in the park, which thence obtained the appellation 
of the “Parliament Oak.” Another parliament is said to have 
been held here in 1290 by Edward I. 
This tree stands in a nook by the side of the highway leading 
from Edwinstowe to Mansfield, at a point where that road is 
intersected by a private way of the Duke of Portland’s. It has 
a circumference at 3 feet up of 28 feet 6 inches, but it is only 
a living ruin. 
The ‘‘ Greendale Oak” is, however, the most remarkable of the 
Welbeck oaks. It stands about half a mile south of the abbey, 
and is computed to be one of the oldest trees in existence in this 
country. The trunk having a century or two back become quite 
hollow with age, and so much decayed that large apertures 
occurred in its sides, the opening was, in 1724, sufficiently 
enlarged by cutting away the decayed wood, to allow an ordinary 
carriage to pass through, and it is said that one of its noble 
owners was actually driven through this opening with his bride, 
on the occasion of his marriage, in a carriage drawn by six horses. 
The height of the opening is 10 feet 3 inches, the width 6 feet 
3 inches, and the circumference at the ground is 36 feet, above 
the arch 35 feet 3 inches, and the sheer height 54 feet.! 
The “Shambles Oak” is another remarkable Welbeck tree. It 
is traditionally said that in its hollow trunk Robin Hood and his 
merry men used to hang up their venison as they would in a 
butcher’s shop, until wanted, and that near it much of their 
cooking was done and revels kept. Some of the iron hooks are 
said still to be seen in the interior. It is said that, in later times, 
this notable tree was used by a sheep-stealer as a place wherein 
to hang his ill-gotten spoil until he could safely dispose of it. 
From these circumstances the tree acquired its name of the 
“Shambles Oak.” 
The ‘‘Two Porters,” a pair of grand old trees, so called from 
1 The dimensions of this famous tree, accurately measured for the Royal 
Scottish Arboricultural Society by Mr Jameson, forester on the Welbeck 
estates, on the occasion of the Society’s visit to it on the 7th August 1889, 
are as follows :—height, 45 feet; girth, 31 feet at the base, and 30 feet at 
5 feet up; the opening in the tree, 9 feet 1 inch high, by 7 feet 3 inches 
wide on the east, and 5 feet 4 inches on the west side.—Ep. 
