CHAP. CV. 



coryea'cete. ^ue'kcus. 1765 



■'■A 



only just beyond Killick and Dinglederry. This is all I can tell you about 

 the oaks : they were old acquaintances, and great favourites, of the bard. 

 How rejoiced I am to hear that he has immortalised 

 one of them in blank verse ! Where could these 1G1 

 lines be hid ? Till this very day, I never heard of their 

 existence, nor suspected of it." (See Monthly Review 

 for July 1804, p. 249.) The noble oaks, Gog and Magog 

 (Jigs. 1604. and 1605.), stand in the same demesne, and 

 are also the property of the Marquess of Northampton, 

 through whose kindness they were measured for us, in 

 August, 1836, by Mr. Munro, His Lordship's forester. — 

 " Gog is a straight handsome tree, measuring, at 1 ft. 1604 



from the ground, 33 ft. 1 in., and at 6 ft., 28 ft. 5 in., in circumference. The 

 height is 72 ft., and the diameter of the head 83 ft. 1 in. Magog is 46 ft. 6 in. 

 in circumference at 1 ft. from the ground, and 30 ft. 7 in. at 6 ft. It is 66 ft. 

 8 in. high, and the head is 78 ft. in diameter. The taM* ->•*. 1605 



form of the head in both trees is irregular and much 

 dilapidated, particularly that of Magog. Some idea 

 may be formed of the size of the original head by the *§jj 

 fact, that, a few years ago, one of the branches ex- 

 tended horizontally 57 ft. from the bole of the tree. & 

 Great part of this branch is now broken off. The 

 trunk of Magog is much thicker, in proportion to the 

 general size of the tree, than that of Gog, and it is 

 not so straight : indeed, Magog ' wreathes his old 

 fantastic roots so high,' that it is difficult to distin- 

 guish them from the trunk. Both trees are still in a growing state, and, 

 though they have many dead branches, are yet nearly covered every year with 

 healthy deep green foliage." At the extremity of some of the living branches, 

 Mr. Munro found the average length of the current year's wood to be about 

 3^ in.; and from one of the excrescences (commonly called warts) on the 

 trunk of Magog he took a one year's shoot 12 in. long. Both the trees are 

 of the same species (Q. pedunculata). Mr. Munro adds that he does not 

 think that Mr. Strutt has done justice to Magog (fig. 1604.), which, he says, is 

 quite as vigorous a tree, and nearly as large, as Gog (fig. 1605.). Cowper's 

 Oak, or Judith, as it is sometimes called, from a legend that it was planted by 

 Judith, the niece of William the Conqueror, " stands close by the side of the 

 principal carriage drive round Yardley Chase, and must have been a favourite 

 with Cowper on account of its grotesque figure, rather than from its size or 

 beauty. Like many other old oak trees in this neighbourhood, it exhibits a huge 

 misshapen mass of wood, swelling out, here and there, in large warty tumours. 

 Its girt, at 1 ft. from the ground, is 30 ft., and at 6 ft., 24 ft. 1 in. ; height, 31 ft. ; 

 diameter of the head, 38 ft.; length of last summer's young wood, 7 in., 8 in., 

 and 10 in." The trunk leans so much to the south, Mr. Munro informs us, 

 " as almost to admit of a person walking up, with very little aid from the 

 hands, to the point where the branches diverge ; or, I rather should say, to 

 the point from which the branches did diverge, which may be about 13 ft. 

 from the ground. Here the remains of three huge branches are seen extend- 

 ing in opposite directions, to the length of about 10 ft. or 12 ft. from the 

 trunk. Not a vestige of bark is upon them, they are quite hollow, and, in 

 some parts, half of this crust has wasted away. On the south side, the trunk 

 has the appearance of having been cleft down the middle, from top to bottom ; 

 here is an aperture, or doorway, 9 ft. high, 2\ ft. wide at the bottom, and 3 ft. 

 wide at the top, which admits the visitor into the interior, or chamber, an 

 apartment extending from north to south 6 ft. 6 in., and from east to west 4 ft. 

 in one place, and 2 ft. 6 in. in another place. The remaining crust of the tree 

 is but a few inches thick in some places ; the wood, although it has been 

 dead probably for centuries, retains an astonishing degree of hardness, and is 

 thickly perforated by insects. There are only ten live boughs in the head, all 



5 y 4 



