14 HISTORY OF FRUITS. 



In Bloomfield wood, near Ludlow, in Shropshire, is 

 an oak-tree belonging to Lord Powis, the trunk of which, 

 in 1765, measured sixty-eight feet in girth, thirty-two in 

 length, and which, reckoning ninety feet for the larger 

 branches, contained in the whole 1455 feet of timber, 

 round measure, or twenty-nine loads and five feet at fifty 

 feet to a load. 



In the vale of Gloucestershire, near the turnpike-road 

 between Cheltenham and Tewksbury, stands the Bad- 

 dington oak, the stem of whose trunk is fifty-four feet, 

 and some of its branches extend to eight yards from the 

 body of the tree. 



The famous oak, Robur Britannicum, in Lord Norrey's 

 Park, at Prescot, was computed to be able to shelter be- 

 tween three and four thousand men. Dr. Plot, in his 

 Oxfordshire, tells us of an oak near Clifton, that spread 

 eighty-one feet from bough-end to bough-end, and shaded 

 560 square yards. 



In Worksop Park, the Duke of Norfolk had an oak 

 which spread almost 3000 square yards, and near 1000 

 horse might stand under the shade. 



We have been favoured with the particular dimensions of 

 the large oak that was felled on the Gelin's estate, in the 

 parish of Bassaly, and within four miles of the town of 

 Newport, in the County of Monmouth, in 1810, as com- 

 municated by the Earl of Stamford to Sir Joseph Banks. 



Body of the tree, ten feet long - ' - fc 450 ft. 

 Twelve limbs and collateral parts, contained 1850 

 Dead limbs - * - IT pi. jwu ^^ 



2426 ft. or 



48 loads and 26 ft. Quantity of bark, 65 cwt, and 

 16 stacks of wood. 



Four men were three weeks and two days in felling and 

 stripping the tree. There were 85 pieces of square or 



