degree, thinned this country of oak-trees, 

 still we have many oaks left of extraordinary 

 great age and bulk, and 



the sturdy oak, 



A prince's refuge once, th* eternal guard 

 Of England's throne, by sweating peasants felPd, 

 Stems the vast main, and bears tremendous war 

 To distant nations, or with sovereign sway 

 Awes the divided world to peace and love. 



Phillips. 



The celebrated oak in Hainault Forest, 

 Essex, known by the name of Fairlop, is 

 thus mentioned by the late Rev. Mr. Gilpin : 

 " The tradition of the country/' says this 

 ingenious writer, " traces it half way up the 

 Christian era. It is still a noble tree, though 

 it has suffered greatly from the depredations 

 of time. About a yard from the ground, 

 where its rough fluted stem is thirty-six feet 

 in circumference, it divides into eleven vast 

 arms, which overspread an area of three 

 hundred feet in circuit : beneath this shade 

 an annual fair has long been held on the 

 2d of July; but no booth is suffered to be 

 erected beyond the extent of its boughs." 



In Bloomfield wood, near Ludlow, in 

 Shropshire, is an oak-tree belonging to Lord 

 Powis, the trunk of which, in 1765, measured 

 sixty-eight feet in girth, thirty-two in length, 



