ACORN. 15 



hewn timber: the squarers were three weeks and four 

 days in squaring it. One pair of sawyers had been five 

 months in sawing the tree, and had not finished when this 

 account was sent. (Mar. 6th, 1811.) The tree was pur- 

 chased by Mr. Thomas Harrison for one hundred guineas. 

 We could add the particulars of numerous other ancient 

 oaks, had we not a fear of exceeding our bounds in de- 

 scribing the most picturesque kind of tree the world can 

 boast. Its appearance has more of dignity than grace, 

 yet it equally suits the Gothic tower or the modern 

 villa, as it harmonises with the former, as beautifully as 

 it contrasts with the latter; it is the grandest ornament 

 of the embellished park, and the happiest protection to 

 the woodman's hut, where 



" Hard by a cottage chimney smokes 

 From between two aged oaks." 



Part of an oak-tree, twenty feet in circumference, was 

 drawn out of the Thames in September, 1815, near the 

 Ferry at Twickenham, with great difficulty, by twenty- 

 four horses : it is known to have lain in the river one 

 hundred and fifty years. 



The workmen, in cleaning the channel, at Brindisi, 

 have drawn up many of the oak piles that were driven in 

 by Caesar. They are small oaks stripped of their bark, 

 and still as fresh as if they had been cut only a month, 

 though buried above eighteen centuries, seven feet under 

 the sand. These piles were driven in by Julius Caesar, to 

 block up Pompey's fleet (Swinburn.) 



Thus " oft conducted by historic truth, 

 We tread the long extent of backward time." 



Thomson. 



A great natural curiosity may be seen at the Imperial 

 Museum at Vienna, at the entrance of the gallery of the 



