206 



A DISCOURSE 



BOOK III. eleven inches in the circumference, will bear near twenty feet diameter, » 

 "'•'"'^^'^^ as it was measured first by myself imperfectly, and then more exactly 

 for me, by order of the late right hon. Sir George Carteret, vice- 

 chamberlain to his INIajesty, and late treasurer of the navy : not to men- 

 tion the goodly planks, and other considerable pieces of squared and 

 clear timber, which I observed to lie about it, that had been hewed and 

 sawn out of some of the arms, only torn from it by impetuous winds.-— 

 Such another monster, I am informed is also to be seen in Sutton church- 

 yard, near Winchester, To these we add what we find taken notice of 

 by the learned and industriously curious Dr. Plot, in his Natural History 

 of Oxfordshire ; particularly an Oak between Newnham Courtney 

 and Clifton, spreading from bough-end to bough-end, eighty-one feet, 

 shading in circumference five hundred and sixty square yards of ground, 

 under which two thousand four hundred and twenty men may com- 

 modiously stand in shelter. And a bigger than this may be seen near 

 the gate of the water-walk at Magdalen College, whose branches shoot 

 sixteen yards from the stem likewise another at Rycote, in Lord 

 Norris's park, extending its arms fifty-four feet, under which three 

 hundred and four horses, or four thousand three hundred and seventy- 

 four men may sufficiently stand. This is that Rohur Britannicum so 

 much celebrated by the late author of Dodona's Grove, and under which 

 he leans contemplating in the frontispiece. But these (with infinite 

 others which I am ready to produce) might fairly suffice to vindicate 

 and assert our proposition, as it relates to modern examples, and sizes of 

 timber-trees, comparable to any of the ancients, remaining upon laudable 

 and unsuspected records, were it not great ingratitude to conceal a most 

 industrious and no less accurate account, which comes to my hands 

 from Mr. Halton, auditor to the right hon. the most illustrious and 

 noble Henry Duke of Norfolk, earl marshal of England. 



IN SHEFFIELD LORDSHIP. 

 The names In the Hall-park, near unto Rivelin, stood an Oak which had eighteen 



of the persons 



who gave in- yards without bough or knot, and carried a yard and six inches square 



telligencc of , , 



the particulars, at thc Said height or length, and not much bigger near the root ; it sold 



Ed. Rawson. 



^ This celebrated tree was blown down on the 29th day of June, 1789, after having 

 continued on classic ground near 500 years. It was generally known by the title of 

 " Addison's Oak" he having shewn an affection for it, by placing a bench under its shade, 

 on which he frequently reposed himself after walking. 



