26 



exceedingly dark colour, and the greater portion of it prettily 

 mottled. 



It is difficult, in the absence of documentary evidence, to 

 estimate the age of " Bound Oak," but it can hardly be leas than 

 five or six centuries. In all probability it owes its immunity 

 from the destructive axe, to the fact of its standing so exactly on 

 the boundary between the two parishes as to preclude the 

 possibility of its being meddled with by the landowner on either 

 side without the tolerably certain result of a law-suit. 



A lively imagination might easily conjure up many interesting 

 associations and romantic scenes in connection with " Bound 

 Oak," but I am bound to say that no record or tradition of these 

 exists, so far, at least, as I have been able to ascertain. Still, 

 as such undeniably ancestral trees are now few and far between, 

 I have thought that the one under consideration, though devoid 

 of any stirring associations, might be worth a note in the Tran- 

 sactions of the Dorset Natural History and Antiquarian Field 

 Club. 



