donahle] THE OAKS 291 



One was admonished in an approaching storm to 



"Beware the oak, it draws the stroke." 



It is also associated with the ash in country proverbs : 



"If the oak is out before the ash, 



' Twill be a summer of wet and splash ; 

 But if the ash is before the oak 



'Twill be a summer of fire and smoke." 



There are no Tecords of long life in America, but there are oaks 

 in England which are believed to have been old trees in the time 

 of William the Conqueror. Pliny mentions an oak which was 

 an old tree when Rome was founded and which was still living in 

 his time. In the United States the largest specimens are found in 

 the Mississippi Valley. The famous Wadsworth oak, with a 

 circumference of twenty-seven feet stood for many years on the 

 bank of the Genesee River, about a mile from Geneseo. But 

 this circumference is small in comparison with some of the Euro- 

 pean oaks. The Cowthorpe tree is seventy-eight feet in circuit 

 and is at least eighteen hundred years old. Another in Dorset- 

 shire is of equal age. In Westphalia is a hollow oak which was 

 a place of refuge in the troubled times in medieval history. The 

 great oak at Saintes in southern France, is ninety feet in girth, 

 and has been ascertained to be two thousand years old. It 

 commemorates a period which antedates the first campaign of 

 Julius Caesar. 



Then there is the Parliament Oak, so called because it is said 

 that Edward I, who ruled from 12 72-1307 once held Parliament 

 under its branches. It is supposed to be fifteen hundred years 

 old. 



"An unremembered Past 

 Broods like a presence, mid the long gray boughs 



Of this old tree, which has outlived so long 

 The flitting generations of mankind." ^ 



The oak appears early to have been an object of worship among 

 the Celts and ancient Britons. Under the form of this tree the 

 Celts worshipped their god Tueb, and the Britons, Tarmawa, their 

 god of thunder. Boal, the Celtic god of fire, whose festival 

 (that of Yule) was kept at Christmas, was also worshipped under 

 the oak. The yule log was always of oak. 



"Criminals were tried under an oak tree; the judge with the 

 jury, was seated under its shade, and the culprit placed in a 

 circle made by the chief Druid's wand. The Saxons also held 



