" Thou wert a bauble once, a cup and ball, 



Which babes might play with, and the thievish jay, 

 Seeking her food, with ease might have purloin'd 

 The auburn nut that held thee, swallowing down 

 Thy yet close-folded latitude of boughs, 

 And all thy embryo vastness at a gulph." COWPER. 



BY virtue of those indices which naturalists discover in 

 the trunks and boughs of aged trees, it is conjectured 

 that the autumns of fifteen hundred years have visited 

 the Oak of Salcey. Standing remote from those frequented 

 parts of Britain, where a thronging population causes 

 the increase of buildings and the making of new roads, 

 protected also by the inland situation of the little forest 

 by which it is surrounded, the old tree has remained 

 entire. It stands a living cavern, with an arched 

 entrance on either side, within whose ample circum- 

 ference large animals may lie down at noon, and where 

 the careful shepherd often folds his flock at nightfall. 

 It measures forty-six feet ten inches at the base, and at 



