THE RAVEN TREE. 5 
died. This oak I mention to show to what a bulk planted oaks 
also may arrive : and planted this tree must certainly have been, 
as will appear from what will be said further concerning this 
area, when we enter on the antiquities of Selborne.* 
On the Blackmoor estate there is a small wood called Losel's, of a 
few acres, that was lately furnished with a set of oaks of a pecu- 
liar growth and great value : they were tall and taper- like firs, but 
standing near together had very small heads, only a little brush 
without any large limbs. About twenty years ago the bridge at the 
Toy, near Hampton Court, being much decayed, some trees were 
wanted for the repairs that were fifty feet long without bough, and 
would measure twelve inches diameter at the little end. Twenty 
such trees did a purveyor find in this little wood, with this ad- 
vantage, that many of them answered the description at sixty feet.f 
These trees were sold for twenty pounds a-piece. 
In the centre of this grove there stood an oak, which, though 
shapely and tall on the whole, bulged out into a large excrescence 
about the middle of the stem. On this a pair of ravens had fixed 
their residence for such a series of 
years, that the oak was distinguished 
by the title of the Raven-tree. Many 
were the attempts of the neighbour- 
ing youths to get at this eyry : the 
difficulty whetted their inclinations, 
and each was ambitious of surmount- 
ing the arduous task. But, when - " 
they arrived at the swelling, it jutted 
out so in their way, and was so far beyond their grasp, that the most 
daring lads were awed, and acknowledged the undertaking to be 
too hazardous. So the ravens built on, nest upon nest, in perfect 
security, till the fatal day arrived in which the wood was to be le- 
velled. It was in the month of February^ when those birds usually 
sit. The saw was applied to the butt, the wedges were inserted 
into the opening, the woods echoed to the heavy blows of the 
beetle or mallet, the tree nodded to its fall ; but still the dam sat on. 
At last, when it gave way, the bird was flung from her nest, and, 
though her parental affection deserved a better fate, was whipped 
down by the twigs, which brought her dead to the ground. 
* Probably the finest and most stately oak, now growing in the south-east of England, is that 
iii the park at Pansanger, in Hertfordshire, the seat of earl Cowper. — Eu. 
t An oak table of one solid plank, seventy-five feet long, and three wide in its entire length, is 
mentioned in Dr. Plot's Nat. Hist, of Staffordshire, as to be seen in the hall of Dudley- 
Ckstle, in that county. The tree grew in the adjoining park. — Ed. 
