CHAP. CV. 



<?ORYLA CE^E. QUE'RCUS. 



1769 



passion for relics; " and a huge bulk of timber, consisting of many loads, was 

 taken away in handfuls. Several saplings were raised, in different parts of 

 the country, from its acorns, one of which grew near St. James's Palace, 

 where Marlborough House now stands ; and there was another in the Botanic 

 Garden, Chelsea. The former has been long since felled ; and of the latter 

 even the recollection seems now almost lost." {Mart. Mill.) 



The Svvilcar Lawn Oak {fig. 1012.), in Needwood 

 Forest, measures 34 ft. in circumference near the ground, 

 though it is supposed to be 1000 years old, and is known 

 by historical documents to have been a large tree more 

 than GOO years : it is still in a growing state. Strutt 

 states that, about 1830, it measured, at Oft. from the 

 ground, 21 ft. 4£ in. in circumference ; and that 54 years 

 before, when measured at the same height from the 

 ground, it girted only 19 ft. This oak is celebrated in 

 Mundy's poem of Needwood Forest, and by Dr. Darwin. 



In Bagot's Park, near Blithefield, about four miles from Lichfield, there 

 are several very remarkable trees. Bagot's Park is the seat of Lord Bagot, 

 who may be regarded as one of the greatest planters of oaks " in the kingdom ; 

 having planted two millions of acorns on his estates in Staffordshire and Wales." 

 {Strutt.) The Squitch Oak {fig. 1613.) has a 

 clear trunk 33 ft. high, which contains 660 

 cubic ft. ; one limb, 44 ft. long ; and 14 other 

 limbs containing altogether 352 cubic feet; 

 making a total of 1012 cubic feet of timber. 

 The total height is 61 ft.; the circumference, near 

 the ground, is 43 ft. ; and at 5 ft., is 21 ft. 9 in. 

 The Rake's Wood Oak is a very old tree, and 

 has lost many of its branches, and several feet 

 of its height. It is now about 55 ft. high, and 

 pretty nearly 30ft. in circumference at 5 ft. from 

 the ground. The Long Coppice Oak is rather 

 smaller than the last : it is very old and un- 

 sound, and has lost many heavy branches, and many feet of its height. Bett's 

 Pool Oak is a bull oak ; that is, it is hollow, and open on one side. The 

 hollow is 9ft. in diameter; but the trunk is only about 8ft. high. The 

 Lodge Yard Oak is an old hollow tree, 

 capable of holding a dozen people, 

 33 ft. 6 in. in circumference at 3 ft. 

 from the ground. The Beggar's Oak 

 {fig. 1614.) is also in Bagot's Park, 

 and has a trunk 27 ft. 3 in. in circum- 

 ference at 5 ft. from the ground : the 

 height is about 60 ft. " The roots rise "^$§h 

 above the ground in a very extra- 

 ordinary manner, so as to furnish a 

 natural seat for the beggars chancing 

 to pass along the pathway near it; 

 and the circumference taken around 

 these is 68 ft. The branches extend about 50 ft. from the trunk in every 

 direction. This tree contains 877 cubic feet of timber ; which, including the 

 bark, would have produced, according to the price offered for it in 1812, 

 202/. 14«. 9rf." {Lauder's Gilpin, i. p. 254.) We have been favoured with the 

 dimensions of the above trees by Messrs. Thomas and George Turner, 

 through the kindness of Lord Bagot. In Beaudesert Park there is a very 

 large oak, the trunk of which is now a mere shell, sufficiently roomy to allow 

 eight people to stand within it. The late Lady Uxbridge often sat within this 

 tree ; and there is a circular hole in the bark, through which she used to 

 place a telescope, in order to amuse herself bv looking at objects in the sur- 



1614 



