LARGE OAKS. 17 



and huge horizontal arms, extending almost to the 

 extremity of the area. This venerable tree, sur- 

 rounded with stone steps, and seats above them, 

 was the delight of old and young, and a place of 

 much resort in summer evenings ; where the former 

 sat in grave debate, while the latter frolicked and 

 danced before them. Long might it have stood, 

 had not the amazing tempest in 1703 overturned it 

 at once, to the infinite regret of the inhabitants, 

 and the vicar, who bestowed several pounds in set- 

 ting it in its place again : but all his care could not 

 avail ; the tree sprouted for a time, then withered 

 and died. This oak I mention, to show to what a 

 bulk planted oaks also may arrive ; and planted this 

 tree must certainly have been, as appears from 

 what is known concerning the antiquities of the 

 village.* 



On the Blackmoor estate there is a small wood 



have been introduced, and grow well ; the quercus robur is 

 nevertheless superior to all of them. The other species are said 

 to be more susceptible of the dry rot. W. J. 



* The celebrated Cowthorpe oak, upon an estate near 

 Wetherby, belonging to the Right Hon. Lady Stourton, mea- 

 sures, within three feet of the surface, 16 yards in circumference, 

 and close by the ground, 26 yards. Its height is about 80 feet, 

 and its principal limb extends 16 yards from the boll. The 

 Greendale oak, at a foot from the ground, is in circumference 

 33 feet 10 inches. The Shire oak covers nearly 707 square 

 yards ; the branches stretching into three counties, York, Not- 

 tingham, and Derby. The Fairlop oak in Essex, at a yard from 

 the ground, is 36 feet in circumference. Damory's oak, in Dor- 

 setshire, at the ground, was in circumference 68 feet, and, when 

 decaying, became hollow, forming a cavity capable of containing 

 20 men. An oak felled at Withy Park, Shropshire, in 1697, was 

 nine feet in diameter, without the bark. The Baddington oak, 

 in the Vale of Gloucester, was 54 feet in circumference at 

 the base ; and Wallace's oak, in Torwood, in the county of 

 Stirling, must have been at least 11 or 12 feet in diameter. 

 W. J. 



