33mi) of tfjc Jprttl) CDommon. 201 



walls, but the branches of the tree spring from one 

 common centre. Architects can alone estimate the 

 excessive purchase which boughs, of at least one hundred 

 and eighty-nine feet, must have on the trunk into which 

 they are inserted. Those of the Oak of Ellerslie cover a 

 Scotch acre of ground ; and in the Three-shire Oak, its 

 branches drip over an extent of seven hundred and seven 

 square yards. The tree itself grows in a nook that is 

 formed by the junction of the three counties of York, 

 Nottingham, and Derby ; and as the trunk is so con- 

 structed, being tapering and firmly rooted in the earth, 

 in order that it may uphold the boughs and repel the 

 fury of the winds, so are the boughs themselves, made 

 with an especial reference to the purpose for which 

 they are designed. They are much thicker at the 

 place of their insertion in the trunk than at the 

 extremity; that their tendency to break may thus be 

 uniform. We owe to this, the graceful waving of 

 innumerable boughs, here aspiring in airy lightness 

 above the general mass, and there gracefully feathering 

 to the ground, the pleasing murmur of their foliage when 

 rustling in the warm breeze of summer, and the elegant 

 ramifications which are perceptible in winter. But 

 whether seen against the clear blue ether of a winter 

 sky, or presenting a broad and ample breadth of shade ; 

 whether raged against by a fierce tempest, or having the 

 foliage gently shaken by playful breezes ; the giant 

 resistance in one case, or the ceaseless quiver of the 



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