OAK-TREE. 95 



of Druidic times, concerning logan stones, and cromlechs, 

 and small stone huts where dwelt your remotest ancestors, 

 that the arch-Druid used to go his rounds, and that on 

 nights of unhallowed solemnity a white bull was sacrificed, and 

 misletoe was cut from oaken boughs with a golden sickle. 



The Greendale oak, near Welbeck, and his brother of 

 Cowthorpe, near Weatherby, with the patriarchal tree of 

 Broomfield Wood, and of Earl Powis's park, near Lud- 

 low, equally with those of Needwood Forest and Blith- 

 field Park, of Fredfield and Panshanger, speak concerning 

 their vast growth, and the bulk of timber they contain. 

 In Salcey Forest stands that venerable tree which, al- 

 though no chronicler of past events, worthily demands 

 respect from all who pass. That tree has sheltered many 

 generations of confiding birds; it has showered myriads 

 of acorns from its good green boughs, and some, which 

 the squirrel has buried for his winter store, and then for- 

 gotten, have sprung up, and furnished timber for large 

 ships. Your Saxon ancestors pastured their hogs in. 



