54< HISTORY OF THE OAK. 



in times when swine's flesh was mostly the diet of 

 the middle and lower classes of people as they do 

 now, the privations of our forefathers were severe 

 indeed. 



An interesting volume might be formed, entitled 

 the " History of the Oak-." The first mention that 

 we know of this tree is that ancidnt of days, the 

 " oak of Mamre," under which Abraham sat in 

 the heat of the day ; and that it was an oak, one 

 of the fathers, Eusebius, tells us, as it remained an 

 object of veneration even in the time of Constan- 

 tine. We would note all the celebrated querci of 

 antiquity; the use, value, strength, duration, &c., 

 of its timber ; the infinite variety of purposes to 

 which its various parts are applied by the me- 

 chanic, the dyer, the artisan ; the insects, which 

 amount to hundreds of species, that live and have 

 their being on the oak ; the vegetables it nourishes, 

 ferns, lichens, mosses, agarics, boleti, &c. ; the saw- 

 dust, apples, gallnuts, acorns, leaves, and innumer- 

 able et cetera of Britain's guardian tree. How- 

 ever highly the Druids might venerate the oak, and 

 make it the emblem and residence of their deity, 

 yet the intrinsic value of this tree was unknown to 

 our remote forefathers. All their knowledge of its 

 virtues was probably, included in its uses for build- 

 ing, its acorns for their swine, and, perhaps, its 

 bark for preserving the skins which they used. 

 Modern ingenuity and necessity have brought its 

 various qualities into notice, or our oak would have 

 received such honours as in days of darkness were 



