298 SYLVAN WINTER. 



then only a common tree, and, afterwards, when 

 it becomes remarkable for its age, the memory of 

 its youth is forgotten. This tree, however, can 

 almost produce historical evidence for the age it 

 boasts. About five hundred years after the time 

 of Alfred, William of Wainfleet, Dr. Stukely tells 

 us, expressly ordered his college to be founded 

 near the great Oak, and an Oak could not well be 

 less than five hundred years of age to merit that 

 title, together with the honour of fixing the site of 

 a college. When the magnificence of Cardinal 

 Wolsey erected that handsome tower, which is so 

 ornamental to the whole building, this tree might 

 probably be in the meridian of its glory, or rather, 

 perhaps, it had attained a green old age. But it 

 must have been manifestly in its decline at that 

 memorable era, when the tyranny of James gave 

 the fellows of Magdalen so noble an opportunity 

 of withstanding bigotry and superstition. It was 

 much injured in Charles II. 's time, when the 

 present walks were laid out. Its roots were dis- 

 turbed, and, from that period, it declined fast, and 

 became reduced by degrees to little more than 

 a mere trunk. The oldest members of the uni- 



