48 SYLVA BRTTANNICA. 



since, by the late Sir Joshua Vanneck, baronet. I 

 have so much of the antiquary in me, as to wish 

 that some memorial of its simple grandeur could 

 have been preserved. You will be delighted with 

 Sir Joshua's noble plantation of oaks, beeches, and 

 chestnuts, &c., with which he has ornamented the 

 whole country, and which, in half a century, as the 

 soil is favourable to them, will be an inexhaustible 

 treasure to the public, as well as to his family." 

 Davy's Letters, vol. i. p. 240. 



More than half a century has elapsed since this 

 account was written, but the Gothic turret with its 

 irregular loop-holes is still remaining, although 

 somewhat lower in altitude ; and Queen Elizabeth's 

 Oak will probably witness the revolutions of more 

 than another century, before its leafy honours are 

 mingled with the dust. It measures thirty-four 

 feet in girt, at five feet from the ground. Mr. Davy 

 imagines it to have been five or six hundred years 

 old at the time he saw it ; and its present appear- 

 ance is sufficiently venerable to bear out the con- 

 jecture. 



SIR PHILIP SIDNEY'S OAK. 



The beautiful estate of Penshurst, on which this 

 tree stands, may be deemed classic ground in every 

 part, as the ancient property of the Sidneys, one of 

 the most illustrious families of which England can 



