Oak Crops. 59 



round shan't see 'em' — with a wink at his own 

 cunning — so as to preserve them till they have grown 

 larger. He advises me never to partake of mushrooms 

 unless certain that they have not grown under oak 

 trees : he will have it that even the true edible 

 mushroom is hurtful if it springs beneath the shadow 

 of the oak. And he is not singular in this belief. 



Chatting about trees, he points out one or two 

 oaks, not at all rotten, but split half-way up the 

 trunk — the split is perfectly visible — yet they have 

 not been struck by lightning ; and he cannot explain 

 it. Looking back upon the wood as we leave it with 

 intense pride in his trees, he gives me a rough version 

 of the old story: how a knight of ancient days, who 

 had done the king some great service, was rewarded 

 with a broad tract of land which he was to hold for 

 three crops. He sowed acorns, and thus secured 

 himself and descendants a tenure of almost 3,000 

 years, at least, according to Dryden : — 



The monarch oak, the patriarch of trees, 

 Shoots, rising up, and spreads by slow degrees ; 

 Three centuries he grows, and three he stays 

 Supreme in state, and in three more decays. 



The keeper wishes he had such an opportunity. The 

 knight, in his idea, reached the acme of wisdom with 

 his three crops cf nearly a thousand years each. 



