was a noble tree, tho inferior to either of the 

 others*. None of them, I fhould fuppofe 

 from this account, was a tree of piclurefque 

 beauty. A flrait flem, of forty or fifty feet, 

 let it's head be what it will, can hardly pro- 

 duce a piclurefque form. When we admired 

 the flone-pine, we fuppofed it's flem to take 

 a fweeping line ; and to be broken alfo with 

 flumps, or decayed branches. 



Clofe by the gate of the water-walk, at 

 Magdalen college in Oxford, grew an oak, 

 which perhaps flood there a faplin, when 

 Alfred the great founded the univerfity. This 

 period only includes a fpace of nine hundred 

 years, which is no great age for an oak. It 

 is a difficult matter indeed to afcertain the age 

 of a tree. The age of a caflle, or abbey is 

 the objecl; of hiflory. Even a common houfe 

 is recorded by the family, that built it. All 

 thefe obje6ls arrive at maturity in their youth, 

 if I may fo fpeak. But the tree gradually 

 compleating it's growth, is not worth record- 

 ing in the early part of it's exiflence. It is 



* See Evelin's Sylva, p. 227, 



then 



