CHAP, in S Y L V A 237 



of Hatfield, (drain'd at the never to be forgotten 

 charge and industry of Sir Cornelius Vermuiden) I 

 think there will need no more enquiry : For there 

 was discover'd trees not only of fir and pitch, but of 

 very goodly oaks, even to the length of 100 foot, 

 which were sold at i 5 /. the tree, black and hard as 

 ebony ; all their roots remaining in the soil, and their 

 natural posture, with their bodies prostrate by them, 

 pointing for the most part north-east : And of such 

 there seem'd to be millions, of all the usual species 

 natural to this countrey, sound and firm ash only 

 excepted, which were become so rotten, and soft, as 

 to be frequently cut through with the spade only ; 

 whereas willows and other tender woods, continued 

 very sound and entire : Many of these subterranean 

 trees of all sorts, were found to have been cut and 

 burnt down, squar'd and converted for several uses, 

 into boards, bales, stakes, piles, barrs, Gfc. some trees 

 half riven, with the wedges sticking in them ; broken 

 axe-heads in shape of sacrificing instruments, and 

 frequently several coins of the emperor Vespasian, 

 Gfc. There was among others, one prodigious oak 

 of 1 20 foot in length, and 12 in diameter, 10 foot 

 in the middle, and 6 at the small end ; so as by 

 computation, this monster must have been a great 

 deal longer, and for this tree was offered 20 /. The 

 truth and history of all this is so perfectly describ'd 

 by Mr. Alan, de la Pryme (inserted among the 

 Transactions of the R. Society) that there needs no 

 more to be said of it to evince, that not only here, 

 but in other places, where such trees are found in the 

 like circumstances, that it has been the work and 

 effects of vast armies of the Romans, when finding 

 they could not with all their force subdue the bar- 



