36 



SYLVA BRITANNIC A. 



that is, more than double the size of that tree 

 which, as already stated, there is reason to believe 

 is upwards of six hundred years old, and four times 

 and one-third as large as the old oak in Langley 

 Woods, which tradition traced for upwards of a 

 thousand years. In 1829 it was measured by the 

 Rev. Thomas Jessop of Bilton Hall, who thus states 

 the result in a letter to Mr. Burgess : " The Cow- 

 thorpe or Calthorpe Oak is still in existence, though 

 very much decayed : at present it abounds with 

 foliage and acorns, the latter have long stalks, the 

 leaves short ones. The dimensions of the tree, ac- 

 cording to my measurement, are as follow : height 

 forty-five feet, (little more than half what it was 

 fifty-three years ago, and then its chief limbs had 

 been destroyed ;) circumference close to the ground, 

 (not including the projecting angles,) sixty feet ; 

 ditto at one yard high, forty-five feet : extent of 

 principal branch, fifty feet, (an increase of two feet 

 in more than half a century ;) mean circumference 

 of ditto, eight feet. I am inclined to think," adds 

 he, " that the original dimensions of this venerable 

 plant were those given in Evelyn's Sylva. The 

 oldest persons in this neighbourhood speak of the 

 tree as having been much higher ; and were we to 

 take into account the angles at the base formed by 

 projections from the trunk, the lower periphery 

 might be made out twenty-six yards. It is said by 

 the inhabitants of the village, that seventy persons 



