1762 



ARBORETUM AND FRUTICETU.M. 



PART III. 



1.395 



branch like the former. In a great storm, on the 27th of February, 1781, both 

 the wall and the tree were blown tlown together." {Gilpin.) 



Mr. South, in the Bulk Society Pnprrn, tells us that in the New Forest there 

 was an oak, which was felleil in 17()8, called the Langiey Oak, the trunk of 

 whicii, after it was cut dow n anil harked, measured 8G ft. in circumference at the 

 base, and 18 ft. in circumference at the height of 20 ft., which was the length of 

 the bole. The head was all knees and crooks, and the branches extended 

 about +0 ft. from the tree on every side. The timber was perfectly sound, and 

 the tree was in a growing state wlien it was cut down. 



Isle of JViglit. Nunwell Park aftbrds examples of several oaks which 

 are supposed to have flourished, where they are now in a state of decay, at the 

 time the grant of the park was made by William the Conqueror to the ances- 

 tor of Sir William Oglander, one of the Norman in- 

 vaders, and from whose family the possession has never 

 lapsed. (A))i(vn. Quo:, fol. 18.) 



Herefordshire. The Moccas Park Oak (/g.l395.), 

 on thebanks of the Wye, is 3G ft. in girt at 3 ft. from 

 the ground. It is hollow in the trunk; but its head, 

 though much injured by time and storms, is bushy and 



Icaiy. 



Hertfordshire. The Great Oak, at Panshangcr {fig. 1596.), growmg on the 

 estate of Earl Cowper, is, as Strutt observes, a fine specimen of the oak tree 

 in its prime. Though upwards of 250 years old, and 

 though it has been called the Great Oak for more 

 thana century, it yet appears " even now to have 

 scarcely reached its meridian : the waving lightness of 

 its feathery branches, dipping down to the very ground, 

 the straightness of its stem, and the redundancy of its 

 foliage, give it a character the opposite of antiquity, {i 

 and fit it for the sequestered and cultivated pleasure- '^-.-^ 

 grounds in which it stands." {Sylv. Brit., p. 7.) The 

 huge oak near Theobald's, commonly called GofF's 

 Oak, is 32 ft. in circumference close to the ground. 

 It gives its name to an inn close by, from the door of which it assumes a 

 most imposing appearance. In one of the rooms there is the figure of this 

 oak, and stuck thereon the following printed account : — " This tree was 

 planted a.d. 10G6, by Sir Theodore Godfrey, or Goff'by, who came over 

 with William the Conqueror." (See Amcon. Qiier., fol. 18.) 



Kent. There are three fine oaks at Fredville, in the parish of Newington, 

 in this county. The Majesty Oak (fig. 1597.), at 8 ft. from ground, exceeds 

 28 ft. in girt ; and it contains above 1 400 ft. of timber. Stately 

 (fig. 1598.) has a clear stem 70 ft. high, and 18 ft. in girt at 



4 ft. from the ground. Beauty 

 is not so high, and is only 

 10 ft. in girt at 4- ft. from the 

 ground. Fisher's Oak, about 

 17 miles from London, on the _^<- 

 Tunbridge Koad, is said by "' 

 Martyn to have been of cnor- 



mous bulk. The |)art of tlic 



1597 trunk now remaining is 24 ft. _^ 



in compass. When King .Tames made a progress that way, "" 

 a schoolmaster in the neighbourhood, and all his scholars, 

 dressed in oaken garlands, came out of this tree in great 

 munbers, and entertained the king with an oration. There is a tradition at 

 Tunbridge Wells, that 13 men, on horseback, were once sheltered within this 

 tree. Sn- Philip Sydney's Oak, at Penshurst (fig. 1599.), is thus mentioned 

 by lien Jonson : — 



" That taller tree, of which the nut was set 

 .\t hi» great birth, where all the Muses met," 



1596 



1598 



