160 The Statural Hijlory 



49. On Blecbington-green, near the Angel 2nd Crown Inn, 

 there is alfo an Elm of fo capacious a hollow trunk, that it once 

 gave reception to a poor great bellyed woman (excluded all the 

 houfes in the Parijh, to prevent her bringing a charge on it) who 

 was brought to bed in it of a Son, now a lufty young man, and 

 living, as they told me, at or near Harwich. And yet neither 

 this Elm, nor the afore- mentioned Oak-> are either of them fo 

 big, but that they may be match'd in many other places, in fo 

 much that I fhould fcarce have thought them worthy my notice, 

 had it not been for the Strange ufes they were heretofore 

 put to. 



50. And thus I had immediatly pafled on to Elms, but that 

 I am detained by a parcel of fubttrraneous Oaks, found fome years 

 fince at the bottom of a Pond on Binfield-beatk in the Parifh of 

 Shiplake, very firm and found, but quite through to the heart as 

 black as Ebony ; caufed 1 fuppofe by a Vitriolic humor in the Earth, 

 which joining with 0a\, the parent of a fort of Galls, might rea- 

 fonably enough produce fuchan^e^?, as we fee they do always 

 in the making of Ink.' And that I am not miftaken in this conje- 

 cture, the Ditches by the Woods fide between this and Caverfiam 

 will bear me witnefs, the Waters whereof, where they ftand un- 

 der Oaks and receive their dropings and fall of their leaves, be- 

 ing turned blacker than any Vitriolic ones I have any where 

 feen, except thofe of Mr. Tyrrill of Oakley in Buckjngham- 

 Jbire. 



51. And thefe alfo no queftion performed the fame feat to 

 fome Tuns of Oak. found alfo under a Pond, belonging to the 

 W6rfhipful Thomas Stonor Efq; of Watlington-P ark, near Blunds 

 Court, in the Parifh of Rotherfield Pypard, which for the benefit 

 of the foil , and other conveniencies , being cleanfed in July, 

 Anno 1 6 75. the Work-men finking it a convenient depth, came 

 at laft, as it proved, to the top Branches of an Oak.'- relation 

 whereof being made to the owner the worthy Mr. Stoner, a per- 

 fon not only curious, but equally generous ; he prefently gave or- 

 der for a further inquifition, and accordingly employed an equal 

 number of men to the greatnefs of the work, who finking a fit a- 

 bout twenty yards over, and about fifty or fixty foot deep, found 

 many whole Oaks ; whereof one flood upright perpendicular to 

 the Horizon, the others lay obliquely, onely one was inverted, the 



forked 



