110 



Large British Oaks. 



standing it overspread four hundred and fifty -two square yards 

 of ground. Its produce was as follows : — 



Main trunk, at ten 



feet long 



FEET. 



450 



One limb . 



. . 



472 



One ditto . 





. . 



355 



One ditto . 





» • 



235 



One ditto . 





. , 



156 



One ditto . 





. . 



113 



One ditto . 





, . 



106 



Six smaller ditto 





. . 



413 



Dead limbs of the 



size 



i of timber 



126 



Total quantity of timber 



2426 



Its conversion was thus : — The main trunk was cut into 

 quarter boards and cooper's stuff; the limbs furnished one 

 upper piece- stem for a hundred-gun ship ; one ditto, fifty 

 guns ; one rother (rudder ?) piece, seventy-four guns ; three 

 lower futtocks, each one hundred guns ; one fourth futtock, 

 one hundred guns ; one ditto, seventy-four guns ; one ditto, 

 forty-four guns ; one -floor-timber, seventy-four guns ; one 

 second futtock, one hundred guns ; and about twenty knees, 

 all of which were large enough for the navy. The heavy body- 

 bark was three inches thick. When all its parts passed into 

 the market, they produced nearly six hundred pounds ! What 

 compression, what expansion from a single seed, weighing 

 probably less than a quarter of an ounce, and contained with 

 ease in the hollow of the human hand ! 



The secret of the growth and magnitude of these and 

 similar specimens is, that for the most part they were solitary 

 beings, that spread out their limbs without any neighbouring 

 opponent or control. Such as these, rearing their heads aloft 

 on the wide common or wayside green, charm the eye of the 

 lover o,f nature's beauties, who deplores the utilitarian feeling 

 that imperils their lives. Their majesty and beauty conspire 

 to seal their doom ; the contractor and carpenter see nothing 

 in them but pounds, shillings, and pence, and they are 

 gradually disappearing by the railway at hand. All things 

 must yield to traffic in a money-getting age ; but the exertions 

 of the poet and the painter wiil still survive the destruction 

 wrought by man and time. 



" Everything/' says Epictetus, " hath two handles." Your 

 readers, Mr. Editor, will be differently affected by the repre- 

 sentation of the fate of these objects. There may be those 

 who think they could not be appropriated to a better purpose ; 

 on the other hand, there are those who, if they had their own 



