CELEBBATBD TREES. 195 



circumference was sixty-eiglit feet, and seventeen 

 feet above tlie ground its diameter was four yards. 

 As tliis vast trunk decayed it became lioUow, 

 forming a cavity whicli was fifteen feet wide and 

 seventeen feet high, capable of holding twenty 

 men. During the civil wars, and till after the 

 restoration, this cave was regularly inhabited by 

 an old man, who sold ale in it. In the violent 

 storm in the year 1703 it suffered greatly, many 

 of its noblest limbs having been torn from it. But 

 it was still so grand a ruin, above forty years 

 after, that some of its branches were seventy-five 

 feet high, and extended seventy-two. In the 

 year 1755, when it was fit for nothing but firewood, 

 it was sold for fourteen pounds.* 



In Torwood, in the county of Sterling, upon a 

 little knoll, stand at this time the ruins of an 

 Oak, which is supposed to be the largest tree 

 that ever grew in Scotland. The trunk of it is now 

 wholly decayed and hollow ; but it is evident, 

 from what remains, that its diameter could not 



* See Hutoliiiis's Aco. ol Dorsctsliire, vol. i., willi a piiut 

 of it. 



N 2 



