18 NOTES TO THE 



bears transplanting better than an elm, up to fifty years of agi'. ; 

 no tree is more easily killed by disturbing it in any way in 

 its old age. 



The Vast Oak, growing in the Plestor, cannot have its age 

 estimated, as no dimensions are given. As a rough rule, there 

 are ten years' growth in every inch of radius of the stem. 

 The remarks I have previously made will show why he 

 specially speaks of the tree having been " planted." Many 

 people would, at that time, have disputed what we now 

 know, and the system we now have of growing plants in 

 nurseries and then sending them out in thousands was almost 

 unknown 100 years ago, especially with all the hard- 

 wood trees. It is not known to what age or to what dimen- 

 sions an oak will grow with fair play. In fact, I have 

 never known an oak die of pure old age. Either lightning or 

 neglected wounds have been the cause of death ; you may 

 recover an oak in its last stage by removing the cause of 

 decay. 



William the Conqueror's Oak at Windsor is certainly 1,20Q 

 to 1,500 years of age, and is about 33 feet round ; the King 

 Oak is 35 feet round, and as old; Queen Elizabeth's Oak, 29 feet 

 round, is probably 1,000 years old ; the age of Shakespeare's 

 ( )ak it is impossible to estimate, as it is now only a white shell 

 with a few bleached hoary branches. 



As for the " tall and taper oaks," White speaks of, they were 

 not Very common in England, except in the Weald of Kent, 

 Surrey, and Sussex, which have naturally supplied ship-timber 

 for hundreds of years. 



Chaucer, writing in the 14th century, describes such a wood. 

 He says : 



" These trees were set that I devize 

 One from another in assize. 

 Five fatlom or six ; I trowe so. 

 But they were high and great also." 



These trees could only have been high and great by being grown in 

 the manner Mr. White describes as oaks naturally are a spread- 

 ing tree and only go up straight when crowded. The great art 

 in managing oak woods for timber is to keep them to this 

 upright growth and yet not deprive them of a sufficiency of 

 branches, which in reality are the lungs of the tree. This dis- 

 tinguishes the English from the Continental system of manage- 

 ment. 



It is not known what produces the excrescences on the oaks ; 



