THE RAVEN TREE. 5 



died. This oak I mention to show to what a bulk planted oaks 

 also may arrive : and planted this tree must certainly must have 

 been, as will appear from what will be said further concerning 

 this area, when we enter on the antiquities of Selborne.* 



On the Blackmoor estate there is a small wood called Losel's, of a 

 few acres, that was lately furnished with a set of oaks of a pecu- 

 liar growth and great value : they were tall and taper- like firs, but 

 standing near together had very small heads, only a little brush 

 without any large limbs. About twenty years ago the bridge at the 

 Toy, near Hampton Court, being much decayed, some trees were 

 wanted for the repairs that were fifty feet long without bough, and 

 would measure twelve inches diameter at the little end. Twenty 

 such trees did a purveyor find in this little wood, with this ad- 

 vantage, that many of them answered the description at sixty feet.f 

 These trees were sold for twenty pounds a-piece. 



In the centre of this grove there stood an oak, which, though 

 shapely and tall on the whole, bulged out into a large excrescence 

 about the middle of the stem. On this a pair of ravens had fixed 

 their residence for such a series of 

 years, that the oak was distinguished 

 by the title of the Raven-tree. Many 

 were the attempts of the neighbour- 

 ing youths to get at this eyry : the 

 difficulty whetted their inclinations, 

 and each was ambitious of surmount- 

 ing the arduous task. But, when ~^--^-* ^j3 

 they arrived at the swelling, it jutted Raven - 



out so in their way, and was so far beyond their grasp, that the most 

 daring lads were awed, and acknowledged the undertaking to be 

 too hazardous. So the ravens built on, nest upon nest, in perfect 

 security, till the fatal day arrived in which the wood was to be le- 

 velled. It was in the month of February, when those birds usually 

 sit. The saw was applied to the butt, the wedges were inserted 

 into the opening, the woods echoed to the heavy blows of the 

 beetle or mallet, the tree nodded to its fall ; but still the dam sat on. 

 At last, when it gave way, the bird was flung from her nest, and, 

 though her parental affection deserved a better fate, was whipped 

 down by the twigs, which brought her dead to the ground. 



* Probably the finest and most stately oak, now growing in the south-east of England, is that 

 in the park at Pansanger, in Hertfordshire, the seat of earl Cowper. ED. 



t An oak table of one solid plank, seventy-five feet long, and three wide in its entire length, is 

 mentioned in Dr. Plot's Nat. Hist- of Staffordshire, as to be seen in the hall of Dudley- 

 castle, in that county. The tree grew in the adjoining park. ED. 



