THE OAK. 



89 



by the late Rector, Dr. Woodhouse, Dean of 

 Lichfield, about seventy years ago. It stands one 

 hundred and thirty-two yards from the N. E. 

 angle of the Chancel of the Church at Doning- 

 ton, and measures three feet nine inches in dia- 

 meter at four feet from the ground." 



Some notion of the value of a well-grown Oak 

 in its prime may be formed from the following 

 account of the felling, in the year 1758, of a tree 

 in Langley Wood, on the borders of the new 

 Forest, and of another in Monmouthshire. The 

 former of these, Mr. South tells us, stood singly 

 in the Wood, and extended its massive branches 

 near forty feet each way. Its head was all knees 

 and crooks, aptly suited to naval purposes ; its 

 bole or shaft was short, not exceeding twenty feet 

 in length ; but it was full six feet in diameter at 

 the top, and perfectly sound. It was felled in an 

 unusual manner for the preservation of its crooks, 

 which were cut off one by one whilst the tree was 

 standing, and lowered by tackles, to prevent their 

 breaking. The two largest arms were sawed off 

 at such distances from the bole as to make first- 

 rate knees ; scaffolds were then erected, and two 

 pit-saws being braced together, the body was first 

 cut across, half through, at the bottom, and then 

 sawed down the middle, perpendicularly, between 

 the two stumps of arms that had been left, at the 

 end of one of which stood a perpendicular bough, 

 bigger than most timber-trees. To prevent this 

 being injured, a bed was made of some hundreds 

 of faggots to catch it when it fell. This half was 

 so weighty that it crushed a new timber-carriage 

 all to pieces the instant it was lodged upon it ; 

 and, none in the country being found strong 



