28 



SYLVA BRITANNIC A. 



THE KING OAK 



forms a conspicuous feature in Savernake Forest, 

 one of the most interesting spots in the kingdom, to 

 the lovers of wild wood scenery. Whilst exploring 

 its tangled haunts and gazing on the massive trunks 

 that every where throw their aged arms across his 

 path, the imagination of the spectator wafts him 

 back to the days of William the Conqueror, and all 

 the vaunted privileges of the chase. It belongs to 

 the Marquess of Aylesbury, and is almost the only 

 forest in England in the hands of a subject ; by 

 whom, in strict language, only a chase is tena- 

 ble. The King Oak, its most venerable ornament, 

 spreads its branches over a diameter of sixty yards, 

 and is twenty-four feet in girth. The trunk is quite 

 hollow, and altogether its age appears to warrant 

 the idea that it may have witnessed in its infancy 

 those rites and sacrifices of our Saxon ancestors 

 which were held in these shadowy recesses, at once 

 to increase their solemnity, and to shield them from 

 the profane eyes of vulgar observers. Could this 

 " eldest of forms" be questioned on its origin, we 

 may imagine its reply in the often-quoted lines : 



" In my great grandsire's trunk did Druids dwell; 

 My grandsire with the Roman Empire fell : 

 Myself a sapling when my father bore 

 Victorious Edward to the Gallic shore." 



