THE OAK. 87 



Las disappeared from the spot for more than a century; 

 Mr. Dale thinks, from inquiries made in the vicinity from 

 persons whose age, if they were now alive, would exceed 

 a hundred, that the last remnants were taken away about 

 the year 1734. 



The handsome brick wall above alluded to stood until 

 1817, having been repaired in 1787 by Basil and Eliza 

 Fitzherbert, who also attached a new inscription. Mr. 

 Dale has bein unable to discover any written account 

 of the second tree thus inclosed. By general tradition, 

 however, it sprung from an acorn of the Royal Oak, and 

 this is credible enough ; for whoever took the pains to rear 

 young trees for St. James's Park and the Chelsea Gardens, 

 doubtless did all in his power to perpetuate the race on the 

 spot were the event took place. From the inscription 

 of 1787, it would seem that Basil and Eliza Fitzherbert 

 believed the tree then standing to have been the identical 

 one in which the Sovereign took shelter. But although 

 they were mistaken in this respect, it must have attained 

 a considerable size, or they could not have fallen iuto such 

 an erro v . From this and other circumstances it appears 

 tolerably certain that the tree now standing is the immediate 

 descendant of the Royal Oak, and that it was planted 

 about the time of the Restoration in 1660, as nearly in the 

 same site as the remains of the old tree would allow, some 

 of the old people alluded to above recollecting that it did 

 not stand in the centre of the old inclosure. 



Some notion of the value of a well-grown Oak in its 

 prime may be formed from the following account of the 

 felling, in the year 1758, of a tree in Langley Wood, on 

 the borders of the New Forest, and of another in Mon- 

 mouthshire. The former of these, Mr. South tells us, 

 " stood singly in the Wood, and extended its massive 

 branches nearly forty feet each way. Its head was all knees 

 and crooks, aptly suited to naval purposes ; its bole or 

 shaft was short, not exceeding twenty feet in length ; but 

 it was full six feet in diameter at the top, and perfectly 



