226 Gilpin's forest scenery. 



other Oaks in the forest, -which may hkewise have 

 the property of early germination. I have heard 

 it often suspected that people gather bnds from 

 other trees, and carry them, on old Christmas-day, 

 to the Oak at Cadenham, from whence they pre- 

 tended to pluck them. For that tree is in such 

 repute, and resorted to annually by so many 

 visitants, that I think it could not easily supply 

 all its votaries, without foreign contributions. 

 Some have accounted for this phenomenon by 

 supposing that leaves have been preserved over 

 the year by being steeped in vinegar. But I am 

 well satisfied this is not the case. Mr. Light- 

 foot, to whom I sent the leaves, had no such 

 suspicion. 



Mr. Wise in his work on the New Forest, already 

 referred to, says concerning this famous tree, 'To the 

 east, about two miles along the Southampton Road, lies 

 the village of Cadenham, famous for its Oak, which, like 

 the Glastonbury Thorn, buds on Christmas Eve. The 

 popular tradition in the neighbourhood runs, that, as the 

 weather is harder, it shows more leaves, and refusing the 

 present chronology, only buds on old Christmas night. 

 As in most things, there is some little truth in the story. 

 Doubtless in some of the mild winters which visit Hamp- 



