By The Eev. 0. P. CAMBRIDGE, M.A. 



IOTTND OAK, or, in Dorset dialect, " Bound Woak " 

 and " Girt Woak " (Great Oak), stands on the boundary 

 line between the parishes of Bloxworth and Bere Eegis, 

 close beside the public bridle path leading from Bloxworth to 

 Bere, through Bere Wood (formerly Bere Forest), over Wood- 

 bury Hill. 



Although considerably dilapidated, " Bound Oak" is still in a 

 state of vigorous growth, which is, however, chiefly confined to 

 the tolerably complete remaining half of this fine old sylvan 

 relic. In the autumn of 1878 the whole of this portion of 

 the tree was covered with an abundant crop of acorns. The 

 girth of the trunk, at about eight feet from the ground, where 

 the body becomes bipartite, is twenty-two feet six inches, 

 but the whole of the centre is hollowed out by decay, a portion 

 of the wall having also disappeared, leaving a dome-like cavity 

 capable of holding several persons. The total height of the tree 

 is somewhere about fifty or sixty feet. From the side opposite 

 to that shown in the accompanying figure, a very large limb fell 

 about twenty-five years ago. This limb, falling on the Blox- 

 worth side, was taken possession of by my late father, the then 

 Lord of the Manor of Bloxworth ; the timber of the fallen limb 

 was for the most part in a remarkably sound condition, of an 



