94 LANDSCAPE GARDENING. 



up with a noble trunk, and stretching out its broad limbs over 

 the soil, 



" These monarchs of the wood, 

 Dark, gnarled, centennial oaks," 



seem proudly to bid defiance to time ; and while generations 

 of man appear and disappear, they withstand the storms of a 

 thousand winters, and seem only to grow more venerable and 

 majestic. They are mentioned in the oldest histories ; we 

 are told that Absalom was caught by his hair in " the thick 

 boughs of a great oak ;" and Herodotus informs us that the 

 first oracle was that of Dodona, set up in the celebrated oak 

 grove of that name. There, at first the oracles were delivered 

 by the priestesses, but, as was afterwards believed, by the in- 

 spired oaks themselves — 



"Which in Dodona did enshrine, 

 So faith too fondly deemed a voice divine." 



Acorns, the fruit of the oak, appear to have been held in 

 considerable estimation as an article of food among the an- 

 cients. Not only were the swine fattened upon them, as in 

 our own forests, but they were ground into flour, with which 

 bread was made by the poorer classes. Lucretius mentions, 

 that before grain was known, they were the common food of 

 man ; but we suppose the fruit of the chestnut may also have 

 been included under that term. 



" That oake whose acornes were our foode before 

 The Cerese seede of mortal man was knowne.'* 



Spenser. 



The civic crown given in the palmy days of Rome to the 

 most celebrated men, was also composed of oak leaves. 



It should not be forgotten that the oak was worshipped by 

 the ancient Britons, Baal or Yiaoul, (whence Yule,) was the 



