Hollow Trees — The Age of Trees 



The cemetery of Allouville, in Normandy, 

 is shaded by one of the oldest oaks in France. 

 The dust of the dead, into which its roots 

 project, appears to have imparted exceptional 

 vigour. Its trunk measures ten yards in 

 circumference at the level of the ground. A 

 hermit's cell, surmounted by a small belfry, 

 rises in the midst of the huge mass of branches. 

 The base of the trunk, which is partly hollow, 

 has since 1696 been arranged as a chapel, 

 dedicated to Our Lady of Peace. The most 

 exalted persons have considered it an honour 

 to pray in this rustic sanctuary, and to 

 meditate for a short time under the shade of 

 the old tree, which has witnessed the open- 

 ing and closing of so many graves. From its 

 dimensions an age of nine hundred years is 

 attributed to this oak. The acorn which 

 gave birth to it must have germinated in the 

 year 1000. Nowadays the ancient oak bears 

 its enormous branches easily, and every spring 

 is covered with vigorous foliage. Honoured 

 by men, wasted by lightning, it follows the 

 course of years with, perhaps, before it a 

 future as long as its past. 



After the oak of Allouville we will recall 

 some others, also comrades of the dead ; 

 for it is in these abodes of rest, where the 



39 



