188 Gilpin's ioeest scenbet. 



five horse. The dignity of its station was equal 

 to the dignity of the tree itself. It stood on a 

 point "where Yorkshire, Nottinghamshire, and 

 Derbyshire unite, and spread its shade over a 

 portion of each. , From the honourable station of 

 thus fixing the boundaries of three large counties, 

 it was equally respected through the domains of 

 them all, and was known far and wide by the 

 honourable distinction of the Shire Oah, by which 

 appellation it w^s marked among cities, towns, 

 and rivers, in all the larger maps of England.* 



In the garden at Tortworth, in Gloucestershire, 

 an old family-seat belonging to Lord Ducie, grows 

 a Spanish Chestnut of great age and dimensions. 

 Traditional accounts suppose it to have been a 

 boundary-tree in the time of King John ; and I 

 have met with other accounts whicli place it in 

 the same honourable station in the reiscn of King- 

 Stephen. How much older it may be we know 

 not. Considerably older it probably was, for we 

 rarely make boundary-trees of saplings and off-sets, 

 which are liable to a thousand accidents, and are 



* See Evelyn's Sylva, p. 232. 



