230 Gilpin's porbst sgenert. 



from its neiglibonr. The fourtli of these stems 

 shot a branch again along the snmmit of the wall, 

 and in close contact with it, forming a fifth stem 

 in the same manner that the parent tree had 

 formed the second. This last stem is again 

 making an effort on the wall to extend this curious 

 mode of vegetation still further. In a great 

 storm which happened in February, 1781, a part 

 of the wall was blown down, and those two stems 

 with it, which were nearest the parent tree. 

 Each of these stems was about four or five feet in 

 diameter, and the timber of them was sold for 

 thirty shillings, which shows their bulk was not 

 trifling. We seldom meet with an instance of so 

 intimate a connexion between an Oak Tree and a 

 stone wall. 



•Lord Henry Scott has kindly made inquii-ies for us as 

 to the Beaulieu Oakj whose curious mode of growth is 

 described by Gilpin in the preceding paragraph, but with- 

 out being able to find any trace of the tree, or to hear of 

 any tradition relating to it. The whole of the paragraph 

 concerning this Oak was added by Gilpin to the second 

 edition of the ' Forest Scenery/ published in 1 794 ; and 

 though it would appear — from the words, ' This last stem 

 is again making an effort/ &c. — that when Gilpin wrote the 



