OAK. 265 



with the essentially "British Oak." The Druids worshipped 

 the Oak, maintaining perpetual fire of its wood. Once a-year 

 the people had to extinguish all their fires, which were relighted 

 from the burning wood on the sacred altar. This is the origin 

 of our beloved Yorkshire custom of the Yule log ; this revi- 

 vifying brand was generally of Oak, but sometimes of Ash, 

 The botanical name (Q. robur, Plate XV., Jig. 6), means 

 beautiful tree. Cowper delineates the life of an Oak in a few 

 touching lines : 



" Thou wert a bauble once a cup and bsll, 

 Which babes might play with ; and the thievish jay, 

 Seeking her food, with ease might have purloined 

 The auburn net that held thee, swallowing down 

 Thy yet close-folded latitude of boughs. 

 Time was, when, settling on thy leaf, a fly 

 Could shake thee to thy roots; and time has been 

 When tempests could not. 



Time made thee what thou wert king of the wood ! 

 And time hath made thee what thou art a cave, 

 For owls to roost in ! " 



But much as we ever venerate the old decayed Oak, with its 

 gnarled branches and hollow trunk, it is to the trees which fall 

 in their prime that our national love and gratitude are given. 



" Thou, Oak ! the strong ship-builder, 

 For thy country's good 

 Givest up thy noble life, 

 Like a patriot in the strife, 

 Givest up thy heart of timber, as he poureth out his blood." 



Oak bark is used for tanning ; it is taken in April. The 

 Royal Oak is from an acorn of the old Boscobel Oak, where 

 the then fugitive king used to conceal himself during the day, 

 taking refuge in the house at night. The Parliament Oak is 

 so called from King Edward I. having held a parliament under 

 it in 1290 ; it is in Northamptonshire. In 1842 " the large Oak 

 tree" was still standing, among whose branches the hero 

 Wallace and his men concealed themselves from the English. 

 The tree is at. EUerslie in Renfrewshire. " The King of the 

 Woods" is a gigantic Oak near Jedburgh ; it is said to mark 

 the place where the border clans used to meet in old times. 



