118 LANDSCAPE GARDENING. 



forest. Springing up with a noble trunk, and stretching 

 out its broad limbs over the soil, 



" These monarchs of the wood, 

 Dark, gnarled, centennial oaks," 



seem proudly to bid defiance to time ; and while generations 

 of man appear and disappear, they withstand the storms of 

 a thousand winters, and seem only to grow more venerable 

 and majestic. They are mentioned in the oldest histories ; 

 we are told that Absalom was caught by his hair in " the 

 thick boughs of a great oak ;" and Herodotus informs us 

 that the first oracle was that of Dodona, set up in the 

 celebrated oak grove of that name. There, at first, the 

 oracles were delivered by the priestesses, but, as was after- 

 wards believed, by the inspired oaks themselves 



" Which in Dodona did enshrine, 

 So faith too fondly deemed, a voice divine." 



Acorns, the fruit of the oak, appear to have been held in 

 considerable estimation as an article of food among the 

 ancients. Not only were the swine fattened upon them, as 

 in our own forests, but they were ground into flour, with 

 which bread was made by the poorer classes. Lucretius 

 mentions, that before grain was known they were the com- 

 mon food of man ; but we suppose the fruit of the chestnut 

 may also have been included under that term. 



" That oake whose acornes were our foode before 

 The Cerese seede of mortal man was knowne." 



SPENSER. 



The civic crown, given in the palmy days of Rome to 

 the most celebrated men, was also composed of oak leaves 



