1768 ARBORETUM AND FRUTICETUM. PART III. 



time gradually completing its growth is not worth recording in the early part 

 of its existence. It is then only a common tree ; and afterwards, when it be- 

 comes remarkable for age, all memory of its youth is lost. This tree, however, 

 can almost produce historical evidence for the age it boasts. About 500 

 years after the time of Alfred, William of Waynfleet, Dr. Stukely tells us, ex- 

 pressly ordered his college [Magdalen College] to be founded near the Great 

 Oak (Itin. Curios.) ; and an oak could not, I think, be less than 500 years of 

 age to merit that title, together with the honour of fixing the site of a college. 

 When the magnificence of Cardinal Wolsey erected that handsome tower 

 which is so ornamental to the whole building, this tree might probably be in 

 the meridian of its glory; or rather, perhaps, it had attained a green old age. 

 But it must have been manifestly in its decline at that memorable era, when 

 the tyranny of James gave the fellows of Magdalen so noble an opportunity of 

 withstanding bigotry and superstition. It was afterwards much injured in the 

 reign of Charles II., when the present walks were laid out. Its roots were 

 disturbed ; and from that period it declined fast, and became reduced to a 

 mere trunk. The oldest members of the university can hardly recollect it in 

 better plight ; but the faithful records of history have handed down its an- 

 cient dimensions. ( See Dr. Plots History of Oxfordshire.) Through a space of 

 16 yards on every side from its trunk, it once flung its boughs ; and under its mag- 

 nificent pavilion could have sheltered with ease 3000 men. In the summer 

 of 1788, this magnificent ruin fell to the ground. It then appeared how 

 precariously it had stood for many years. The grand taproot was decayed, 

 and it had a hold of the earth only by two or three rootlets, of which none ex- 

 ceeded a couple of inches in diameter. From a part of its ruins a chair has 

 been made for the president of the college, which will long continue its 

 memory." (For. Seen., i. p. 140.) 



Shropshire. The Shelton Oak (fig. 161 1.), growing near Shrewsbury, mea- 

 sured, in 1810, as follows : Girt, close to the ground, 44ft. Sin,; 5ft. from 

 the ground, 25 ft. 1 in. ; 8 ft. from the ground, 27 ft. 4 in. ; height to the prin- 

 cipal bough, 41ft. Gin. (Gent. Mag., Oct. 1810.) The , 

 tree was very much decayed in 1813, and had a hollow at 

 the bottom sufficient to hold with ease half a dozen persons. 

 (Beauties of England and Wales ; Shropshire, 179.) This oak 

 was celebrated for Owen Glendower having mounted on it 

 to observe the battle of Shrewsbury, fought on June 21. 

 1403, between Henry IV. and Harry Percy. The battle had 

 commenced before Glendower arrived; and he ascended 

 the tree to see how the day was likely to go. Finding that 

 Hotspur was beaten, and the force of the king was overpowering, he retired 

 with his 12,000 men to Oswestry. We have received the following account 

 of the present state of this remarkable oak from John F. M. Dovaston, Esq., 

 M.A., of Westfelton, near Shrewsbury : 



" To the numerous descriptions and histories of this venerable and venerated 

 tree there remains little more necessary to add, than that, of late years, it has 

 shown but slow tendency to farther decay ; and that it is now somewhat pro- 

 tected by having been taken within the grounds of a very chastely ornamented 

 house, built in the ancient fancy Gothic, by Robert Burton, Esq., whose very 

 pure taste, and extensive improvements, have made the elevated and conspi- 

 cuous village of Shelton one of the most beautiful in a county eminent for 

 the beauty of its villages. With regard to the far-famed tree itself, however, 

 there may be some who will think it has lost much of its grotesque and com- 

 manding wildness, now surrounded with shrubberies, dressed grass-plots, and 

 gravel walks ; since it towered with rude but majestic grandeur over groups 

 of gipsies, cattle, or casual figures, amid the furze, bushes, and wild-flowers 

 of a rough uncultured heath." It has lately received a poetical inscription 

 from the pen of Mr. Dovaston. 



Staffordshire. The Royal Oak of Boscobel, in which Charles II. took re- 

 fuge after the battle of Worcester, was prematurely destroyed by an ill-judged 



