THE OAK. 



81 



Wallace, roused the spirit of the Scotch nation to 

 oppose the tyranny of Edward, he often chose the 

 solitude of Torwood as a place of rendezvous for 

 his army. Here he concealed his numbers and 

 his designs, sallying out suddenly on the enemy's 

 garrisons, and retreating as suddenly when he 

 feared to be overpowered. "While his army lay 

 in these woods, the Oak which we are now com- 

 memorating was commonly his head-quarters. 

 Here the hero generally slept ; its hollow trunk 

 being capacious enough to afford shelter, not only 

 to himself, but to several of his officers. This 

 tree has ever since been known by the name of 

 Wallace Tree, by which name it may be easily 

 found in Torwood to this day." 



Another interesting relic is the Parliament 

 Oak, which grows in Clipstone Park, and takes 

 its name from the fact of a Parliamicnt having 

 been held under it, by Edward I., in 1290. 



Queen Ehzabeth's Oak, at Huntingfield, in 

 Suffolk, measures thirty -four feet in girth at five 

 feet from the ground. Queen Elizabeth is said 

 to have been entertained at the old mansion by 

 Lord Hunsdon, and to have enjoyed the pleasures 

 of the chase in rural majesty. The great hall 

 was built round six straight massy Oaks, which 

 originally upheld the roof, as they grew ; and 

 upon these the foresters and yeomen of the guard 

 used to hang their nets, cross-bows, hunting-poles, 

 and other implements of the chase. Elizabeth is 

 said to have been much pleased with the retire- 

 ment of this park, filled with tall and massy tim- 

 ber-trees, but particularly "with the Oak, w^hich 

 ever afterwards bore the appellation of the Queen's 

 Oak. It stood about two bow-shots from the old 



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