34 THE OAK. 



tion 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 ! 



