THE OAK. 



21 



fifteen hundred years old, when it was four hundred 

 and eight inches in circumference ; whereas the 

 Salcey Forest Oak is, as we see, five hundred and 

 sixty-two. 



The following lines, written by Cowper on the 

 Yardley Oak, may be applied, with equal truth, to 

 the Salcey Forest Oak, as a proof how closely the 

 descriptive powers of poetry may compete with the 

 imitative ones of painting, to present an object to 

 the mind with the most exact fidelity of nature : 



" Embowell'd now, and of thy ancient self 

 Possessing nought but the scoop'd rind that seems 

 An huge throat, calling to the clouds for drink, 

 Which it would give in rivulets to thy root, 

 Thou temptest none, but rather much forbidd'st 

 The feller's toil, which thou could'st ill requite. 

 Yet is thy root secure, sound as the rock ; 

 A quarry of stout spars and knotted fangs. 

 Which, crook'd into a thousand whimsies, clasp 



The stubborn soil, and hold thee still erect. 



■* * * * * * * 



Thine arms have left thee, winds have rent them oft" 



Long since; and rovers of the forest wild, 



With bow and shaft, have burnt them. Some have left 



A splinter'd stump, bleach'd to a snowy white ; 



And some memorial none, where once they grew. 



Yet life still lingers in thee, and puts forth 



Proof, not contemptible, of wiiat she can. 



Even where death predominates. The spring 



Finds thee not less alive to her sweet force, 



That yonder upstarts of the neighbouring wood, 



So much thy juniors ; who their birth receiv'd 



Half a millennium since the date of thine." Cowper. 



