CHAP. CV. 



CORYLA CEJE. QUE RCUS. 



767 



1608 



1609 



tree, and is probably but little altered during the last century. 

 The difference between the two engravings of it was so great, 

 that we wrote to the Duke of Portland to ascertain the pre- 

 sent state of the tree; and we have been informed by His Grace, 

 that Major Rooke's portrait still affords a correct representa- 

 tion of it. " In 1724, a roadway was cut through its vene- 

 rable trunk, higher than the entrance to Westminster Abbey, 

 and sufficiently capacious to permit a carriage and four horses to pass through 

 it." (Strut? s Sylva.) The dimensions of this tree are thus given by Major 

 Rooke : — " Circumference of the trunk above the arch, 35 ft. 3 in.; height of 

 the arch, 10 ft. 3 in. ; width of the arch about the 

 middle, 6ft. 3 in.; height to the top branch, 54ft." 

 Major Rooke's drawing, which is the same view of 

 the tree as that in Hunter's Evelyn, which we have 

 copied in ^#.1609., was made at the same time as 

 that of the Gamekeeper's Tree, viz. in 1779. Ac- 

 cording to Hunter's Evelyn, about 1646 this oak was 

 88 ft. high, with a trunk girting 33 ft. 1 in. ; the dia- 

 meter of the head 81 ft. " There are three great arms 

 broken and gone, and eight very large ones yet remain- 

 ing, which are very fresh and good timber." 



The Parliament Oak (Jig. 1610.) grows in Clip- 

 stone Park, and derives its name from a parliament 

 having been held under it, by Edward I., in 1290. The girt of this tree is 

 28 ft. 6 in. Clipstone Park is also the property of the Duke of Portland, and 

 is supposed to be the oldest park in England, having been a park before the 

 Conquest, and having been then seized by 

 William, and made a royal demesne. Both 

 John and Edward I. resided, and kept a 

 court, in Clipstone Palace. In Birchland, 

 in Sherwood Forest, there is an old oak, 

 which measures, near the ground, 34 ft. 4 in. 

 in circumference; and at 6ft., 31ft. 9 in. 

 " The trunk, which is wonderfully distorted, 

 plainly appears to have been much larger ; 

 and the parts from which large pieces have 

 fallen off are distinguishable. The inside 

 is decayed and hollowed by age ; and 1 

 think," adds Major Rooke, " no one can 161 ° 



behold this majestic ruin without pronouncing it to be of very remote an- 

 tiquity; and I might venture to say that it cannot be much less than 1000 

 years old." (p. 14.) 



In Worksop Park, according to the record quoted in Hunter's Evelyn, 

 there were some noble trees about 1646. One of these, when cut down, 

 measured from 29 ft. to 30 ft. in circumference throughout the bole, which 

 was 10 ft. long. Another tree had a head 180 ft. in diameter, and was com- 

 puted to cover half an acre of ground. Other trees, 40 ft. in the bole, gave 

 2 ft. square of timber at the upper end. The Lord's Oak girted 38 ft. 4 in. 

 The Shire Oak, which is still standing, had then a head 90ft. in diameter, which 

 extended into three counties (York, Nottingham, and Derby), and dripped over 

 777 square yards. 



Oxfordshire. Of the Magdalen, or Great, Oak of Oxford, Gilpin gives the 

 following interesting notice: — " Close by the gate of the water walk of Mag- 

 dalen College, Oxford, grew an oak, which, perhaps, stood there a sapling 

 when Alfred the Great founded the university. This period only includes a 

 space of 900 years, which is no great age for an oak. It is a difficult matter 

 to ascertain the age of a tree. The age of a castle or abbey is the object of 

 history : even a common house is recorded by the family who built it. All 

 these objects arrive at maturity in their youth, if I may so speak. But the 



