18 THE OAK, 



ages far exceeding this. The Salcey-forest oak in Northamptonshire, 

 described by Sir Thomas Dick Lander as " one of the most picturesque 

 sylvan ruins that can be met with anywhere," is calculated, on good 

 grounds, to be more than fifteen hundred years old ; while in Clipstone 

 Park, Nottinghamshire, stands a venerable tree called the Parliament 

 oak, from a tradition that under its branches a Parliament was held by 

 Edward I. in the year 1290, at which time it is probable that it was 

 an old and large example of its species. We count it a grand thing if 

 a man lives to be a hundred years old. How trifling is such an 

 age compared with that of an oak, which in its ruins reminds us of 

 Palmyra ! 



