10 VEGETABLE SUBSTANCES. 



last century shattered this majestic- tree ; and in 

 1755 the last vestiges of it were sold as firewood. 

 An immense oak was dug out of Hatfield bog. It 

 was a hundred and twenty feet in length, twelve in 

 diameter at the base, ten in the middle, and six at 

 the smaller end where broken off. 



Some oaks have been as celebrated for being the 

 records of historical events, as others have been for 

 their magnitude, although a part of the celebrity 

 may no doubt be fabulous. Not a hundred years 

 ago, the oak in the New Forest, against which the 

 arrow of Sir William Tyrrel glanced, before it killed 

 William Ruftis, is said to have been standing, though 

 in such a state of decay, that Lord Delaware erected 

 a monument to indicate the spot. The Royal Oak 

 at Boscobell, in which Charles the Second concealed 

 himself after the defeat at Worcester, has disap- 

 peared; anid though several trees were raised from 

 its acorns, the race seems now to be lost to vege- 

 table history. An oak of still more venerable pre- 

 tensions now stands, or lately stood, at Torwood 

 Wood, in Stirlingshire, under the shadow of which 

 the Scottish patriot ^^'allace is reported to have con- 

 vened his followers, and impressed upon them, not 

 only the necessity of delivering their country from 

 the thraldom of Edward, but their power of doing it, 

 if they were so determined. Gil]jin mentions one, 

 more ancient even than this — Alfred's oak at Oxford, 

 which was a sapling when that great monarch founded 

 the University. This cainiot, of course, be implicitly 

 credited ; but still the very mention of such things 

 proves, that the oak can reach an age several times 

 exceeding that of the longest lived of the human 

 race. 



Since oak was so much in demand, it has become 

 an object of great attention to planters; and the plants 

 are carefully reared by nurserymen from the acorns. 

 If the saplings are to be of considerable size when 



