CHAP. CV. 



COKYLA'CEzE. QUE'RCUS. 



1775 



commenced some centuries prior to the era of Christianity?" We can readily 

 subscribe to this doctrine," says a writer in the Magazine of Natural History y 

 vol. iii. p. 379., " and feel, indeed, quite at a loss to set limits, under favourable 

 circumstances, to the natural duration of this monarch of the forest." Those 

 oaks in England which are reputed to be the oldest are, the Parliament Oak 

 (p. 1767.); Cowper's Oak (p. 1765.); the Winfarthing Oak (/g.1623.), which 



is said to have been an old oak at the time of the Conquest (p. 1764.) ; the 

 Nannau Oak, which was a hollow oak in the reign of Henry IV. (see p. 1763.) ; 

 the Salcey Forest Oak (see p. 1766.) ; and the Bull Oak in Wedgenock 

 Park, which was made a park about the time of Henry I. (see p. 1770.). To 

 these might be added several others, perhaps of equal age, such as the Flitton 

 Oak (see p. 1757.), but which have not attracted public attention, in that 

 particular, so much as those above enumerated. 



The largest Oaks on Record. The Rev. Abraham De la Pryme records, in 

 the Philosophical Transactions for 1701, that his friend Mr. Edw. Canby found 

 within his moors, beneath the level of Hatfield Chase, in Yorkshire, the solid 

 trunk of an oak tree, 120 ft. long, 36 ft. in circumference at the but end, 30 ft. in 

 circumference at the middle, and 18 ft. at the small end, where the trunk was 

 broken off; so that, by moderate computation, he says, this tree may have 

 been 240 ft. in height. Dr. Plot mentions an oak at Norbury, which was of 

 the circumference of 45 ft. ; an oak at Rycote, under the shade of which 4374 

 men had sufficient room to stand. The Boddington Oak, in the Vale of Glou- 

 cester (seep. 1760.), was 54ft. in circumference at the base; and Damory's 

 Oak, in Dorsetshire (see p. 1758.), was 68ft. in circumference within the 

 hollow. 



The largest Oaks still existing. These appear to be, the Salcey Oak, in 

 Northamptonshire, with a trunk 46 ft. in circumference ; the Grindstone Oak, 

 in Surrey, 48 ft. ; the Hempstead Oak, in Essex, 53 ft. ; the Merton Oak, in 

 Norfolk, 63ft.; and the Cowthorpe Oak, in Yorkshire (fig. 1624.), 78 ft. 



Oaks remarkable for their horizontal Expansion. The Three-shire Oak, near 

 Worksop, was so situated that it covered part of the three counties of York, 



5z 



