177(5 



AKBORETUM ANO !• IIUTICETUM. 



PAUT 111. 



1624 



> /^ '''*■' '•^~ • • '^iia^-*^- 





Nottingham, and Derby, and dripped over 777 square yards. An oak 

 between Newnhain Courtney and Clifton shaded a circumference of 560 

 yards of ground, under whicli 2420 men might have commoiliously taken 

 shelter. The immense Spread Oak in Worksop Park, near the white gate, 

 gave an extent, between the ends of its opposite branches, of IbO ft. It drip- 

 ped over an area of nearly 3000 square yanls, which is above half an acre ; and 

 would have afforded slicker to a regiment of nearly 1000 horse. The Oakley 

 Oak, now growing on an estate of the Duke of Bedford, has a head 1 10 ft. in 

 diameter. The oak called Kobur Britannicum, in the park at Rycote, is said 

 to have been extensive enough to cover 5000 men ; aud at EUerslie, in Ren- 

 frewshire, the native village of the hero Wallace, there is still standing "the 

 large oak tree" (see p. 1772.), among the branches of which it is said that he 

 and .300 of his men hid themselves from the English. 



Size of Oaks, ns compared with that of other Objects. " The circle occupied 

 by the Cowthorpe Oak," says Professor Burnet, "where the bottom of its trunk 

 meets the earth, exceeds the ground plot of that majestic column of which 

 an oak is confessed to have been the prototype, viz. Smeaton's Eddystone 

 Lighthouse. Sections of the trunk of the one would, at several heights, nearly 

 agree with sections of the curved and cylindrical portions of the shaft of 

 the other. The natural caverns in Damory's and other oaks were larger' 

 than the chambers alluded to, as horizontal slices of the trunk would be con- 

 siderably too large to floor any of them. The hollow space in Damory's Oak 

 was, indeed, 3 ft. wider than the parish church of St. Lawrence, in the Isle of 

 Wight. Arthur's round table would form an entire roof, or projecting ca[)ital, 

 for the lighthouse: indeed, upon this table might be built a round church, as 

 large as that of St. Lawrence, in the Isle of Wight, before alluded to, and 

 sjKice to spare; so that, if the extent of the sap woocl be added, or the ground 

 plot of the Cowthorpe Oak be substituted for Arthur's table, there would be 

 plenty of room, not only to build such a parish church, but to allow space for 

 a small cemeterv beside it. Indeed," continues Burnet, " with reference to 



