OAK-TREE. 97 



Alas for the Abbott's oak at Woburn ! No pleasant 

 thoughts of sylvan majesty, nor abundance, nor yet of 

 singing-birds, nor herds of grateful creatures pasturing 

 beneath its branches, are associated with that lone tree. 

 Near three hundred years have passed since Eoger Hobbs, 

 Abbot of "Woburn, together with the Vicar of Paddington, 

 were hung upon its branches, by order of Henry VIII., 

 for refusing to surrender their sacerdotal rights ; yet still 

 the old oak stands; but few even of the most intrepid 

 youths will pass thereby when night broods over its 

 venerable head, and the startling whoop of the solitary 

 owl is heard from amid its branches. 



Who has not heard concerning the Shelton oak, near 

 Shrewsbury, called the " Grette oak," in 1543, tradi- 

 tionally believed to have served the "irregular and wild 

 Glendower " for a post of observation previous to the battle 

 of Shrewsbury ? concerning, also, the Queen's oak, at 

 Huntingdon, beneath the shade of which Queen Elizabeth 

 is said to have shot a buck with her own hand, while 



H 



