214 



COLLEGE GARDENS 



The oldest tree was the famous " Magdalen Oak," which fell 

 in 1789 in the middle of the night of June 29, " accompanied 

 by a violent, rushing noise and a shock felt throughout the 

 College." The number of annual rings as counted by R. Paget 

 indicated that it was planted at the beginning of the eleventh 

 century. In the fifteenth, William of Waynflete ordered the 



THE MAGDALEN OAK, 1675 



northern boundary of his College to be marked " right to it." * 

 Two centuries later, measurements showed that " its boughs 

 shoot from the boal fifteen or sixteen yards, which supposing 

 they did spread of equal length from the trunk, like the rays 



* Mr. Wilson informs me that he has never been able to find any 

 early authority for this story, and that he believes it to be a local myth, 

 for there is certainly no mention of the tree in the description of the 

 boundaries of the situs collegii. f '- 



