162 Gilpin's forest scenery. 



mercliant's rule. And yet all these liave been 

 trees famous in their day ; some of them are still 

 alive; and if I were writing a biographical history 

 of trees, I should be glad to insert them, ha-^ing 

 a reverence for them all. "Where one tree attains 

 this noble growth, and makes itself conspicuous, 

 thousands and ten thousands reach only the 

 ordinary size of nature. The few pages, however, 

 at present on my hands, I should wish to allot to 

 such trees only as have somewhat more of history 

 and anecdote annexed to them. 



Of the four oaks, last-mentioned in the preceding para- 

 graph, two are still living — the famous Cowthorpe Oak' 

 near Wetherby, Yorkshire, and the Swilcher (spelt Swil- 

 car by Gilpin) Oak. In a note to his edition, published in 

 1834, of this ' Forest Scenery,' Sir T. Dick Lauder stated, 

 that, at three feet from the ground, the Cowthprpe Oak 

 measured sixteen yards, and that, close to the ground, it 

 measured twenty-six yards in girth, its principal limb ex- 

 tending forty-eight feet from the truuk. In the year 1718 

 this tree had its principal branch rent off by a storm — and 

 the branch was found, on being accurately measured, to 

 contain upwards of five tons of timber ! Sir T. D. Lauder 

 adds, ' This magnificent vegetable production is still in 

 wonderful preservation, though its foliage be thin.' His 

 statement of the girth of this celebrated tree agrees with 



