THE OAK. 19 



copses, and picturesque herds of cattle, give it an 

 animation not less attractive to the sportsman than 

 to the painter. 



The Oak which maintains so proud a pre-eminence 

 over all its brethren in this forest, was, in 1794, 

 according to the account of H. Rooke, Esq. F.S.A., 

 in circumference at the bottom, where there are no 

 projecting spurs, forty-six feet ten inches ; at one 

 yard from the ground, thirty-nine feet ten inches ; 

 at two yards, thirty-five feet nine inches ; at three 

 yards, thirty-five feet. Circumference within the 

 trunk, near the ground, twenty-nine feet; at one 

 yard from the bottom, twenty-four feet seven inches ; 

 at two yards, eighteen feet six inches ; at three yards, 

 sixteen feet two inches. The height within the 

 hollow was at that time fourteen feet eight inches, 

 and the height of the tree itself, on the outside to the 

 top branch, thirty-nine feet three inches. Of its 

 age, a calculation may be formed from the fol- 

 lowing observations of the ingenious Thomas South, 

 Esq., communicated in his fourth Letter on the 

 Growth of Oaks, addressed to the Bath Society. 

 Speaking of an ancient hollow tree, the Bull Oak, 

 on Oakly Farm, he informs us, that about twenty 

 years before the time of his writing, 1783, he 

 had the curiosity to measure this tree. " Its 

 head," he proceeds to relate, " was as green and 

 vigorous last summer, as it was at that time ; and 

 though hollow as a tube, it has increased in its 



