1776 



ARBORETUM AND FRUTICETUM. 



PART 111, 



1624 



Nottingham, and Derby, and dripped over 777 square yards. An oak 

 between Newnham Courtney and Clifton shaded a circumference of 560 

 yards of ground, under which 24-20 men might have commodiously taken 

 shelter. The immense Spread Oak in Worksop Park, near the white gate, 

 gave an extent, between the ends of its opposite branches, of 180 ft. It drip- 

 ped over an area of nearly 3000 square yards, which is above half an acre j and 

 would have afforded shelter to a regiment of nearly 1000 horse. The Oakley 

 Oak, now growing on an estate of the Duke of Bedford, has a head 110ft. in 

 diameter. The oak called Robur Britannicum, in the park at Rycote, is said 

 to have been extensive enough to cover 5000 men ; and at Ellerslie, in Ren- 

 frewshire, the native village of the hero Wallace, there is still standing " the 

 large oak tree" (see p. 1772.), among the branches of which it is said that he 

 and 300 of his men hid themselves from the English. 



Size of Oaks, as compared with that of other Objects. " The circle occupied 

 by the Cowthorpe Oak," says Professor Burnet," where the bottom of its trunk 

 meets the earth, exceeds the ground plot of that majestic column of which 

 an oak is confessed to have been the prototype, viz. Smeaton's Eddystone 

 Lighthouse. Sections of the trunk of the one would, at several heights, nearly 

 agree with sections of the curved and cylindrical portions of the shaft of 

 the other. The natural caverns in Damory's and other oaks were larger 

 than the chambers alluded to, as horizontal slices of the trunk would be con- 

 siderably too large to floor any of them. The hollow space in Damory's Oak 

 was, indeed, 3 ft. wider than the parish church of St. Lawrence, in the Isle of 

 Wight. Arthur's round table would form an entire roof, or projecting capital, 

 for the lighthouse : indeed, upon this table might be built a round church, as 

 large as that of St. Lawrence, in the Isle of Wight, before alluded to, and 

 space to spare; so that, if the extent of the sap wood be added, or the ground 

 plot of the Cowthorpe Oak be substituted for Arthur's table, there would be 

 plenty of room, not only to build such a parish church, but to allow space for 

 a small cemetery beside it. Indeed," continues Burnet, "with reference to 



