THE OAK. 



77 



the bole. Throughout the whole tree the foliage 

 is extremely thin^ so that the anatomy of the 

 ancient branches may be distinctly seen in the 

 height of summer. This venerable tree must 

 once have been the pride of the forest, but now 



" the gray moss mars his rime, 



His bare boughs are beaten Tvdth stormes, 

 His top is bald and wasted with wormes, 

 His honour decayed, his branches sere." 



Spenser. 



The drawing of this tree was made in 1776, and 

 the description published ten years later. The 

 following account was sent to Loudon in 1829 : — 



On a stranger's first observing the tree he is 

 struck with the majestic appearance of its ruined 

 and riven-looking dead branches, which in all di- 

 rections appear above the luxuriant foliage of the 

 lateral and lower arms of the tree. In 1722 one 

 of the side-branches was blown down in a violent 

 gale of wind, and, on being accurately measured, 

 was found to contain upwards of five tons of wood. 

 The largest of the living branches at present 

 extends about forty-eight feet from the trunk ; 

 and its circumference, at about one yard from 

 the giant bole, is eight feet six inches. Three 

 of the living branches are propped by substantial 

 poles, resting upon stone pedestals. The diameter 

 in the hollow part at the bottom is nine feet ten 

 inches : the greatest height of the dead branches is 

 about fifty-six feet. It is evidently of very great 

 antiquity, as all tradition represents it as a very 

 old tree." The circle occupied by the Cow- 

 thorpe Oak," says Professor Burnet, where the 

 bottom of its trunk meets the earth, exceeds the 

 ground-plot of that majestic column of which an 



