200 Gilpin's forest soeneey. 



But this tree brings its evidence "witli it — evidence 

 wliicli, if necessary, might carry it into Saxon 

 times. It is now falling fast into the decline of 

 years, and every year robs it more of its honours. 

 But its trunk, which measures thirty-five feet in 

 circumference, still retains its grandeur, though 

 the ornaments of its boughs and foliage are much 

 reduced. But the grandeur of the trunk consists 

 only in appearance. It is a mere shell. In Queen 

 Elizabeth's time it was hollow, and from this 

 circumstance the tree derives the honour of being 

 handed down to posterity. That princess, who 

 from her earliest age loved masculine amuse- 

 ments, used often, it is said, in her youth, to take 

 her stand in this tree, and shoot the deer as they 

 passed. From that time it has been known by 

 the name of Queen Elizabeth's Oak. 



Though falling fast into the decline of years in the last 

 century, Queen Elizabeth's Oak is still standing upon Lord 

 Huntingfield's property at Heveningham; and the Rev. 

 William Belcher, rector of the parish, informs us that it is 

 ' a magnificent old tree of enormous girth.' The fact of 

 the marvellous prolongation of Oak life finds a singular 

 illustration in the continued existence of a tree, which, if 

 the report of it given by Gilpin be correct, was so hollow in 



