i6o The 3\(jttural Hiftory 
49. On Blechington-grcen^ near the Angel 2nd Crown Inn, | 
there is alfo an Elm of fo capacious a hollow trunk^ that it once 
gave reception to a poor great bellyed woman (excluded all the 
houfes in the Tarijh^ to prevent her bringing a charge on it) who 
was brought to bed in it of a Son, now a lufty young man^ and 
living, as they told me, at or near Harwich. And yet neither 
this nor the afore mentioned Oak-) ^re either of them fo 
big, but that they may be match'd in many other places, in fo 
much that I fliould fcarce have thought them worthy my notice, 
had it not been for the ftrange ufes they v^erc heretofore 
put to. 
50. And thus I had immediatly pafied on to Ehns^ but that 
I am detained by a parcel of fubterraneom Oahj^ found fome years 
fmceat the bottom of a Pond on Binfield- heath in the Parifh of 
Shiplake-, very firm and found, but quite through to the heart as 
black as Ehonj ; caufed 1 fuppofe by a Vitriolic humor in the Earthy 
which joining with Oakxh^ parent of a fort of Galls, might rea- 
fonably enough produce fuchane^^i^, as we fee they do always 
in the making of Ink.- And that I am not miftaken in this conje- 
dure, the Ditches by the Woods fide between this and Caverjham 
will bear me witnefs, the Waters whereof, where they ftand un- 
der Oaks and receive their dropings and fall of their leaves, be- 
ing turned blacker than any Vitriolic ones I have any where 
feen, except thofe of Mr. Tyrfill of Oakley in Buckingham- 
Jhire. 
51. And thefe alfo no queftion performed the fame/ei^/ to 
fome Tuns of Oak. found alfo under a Vond^ belonging to the 
Worffiipful Thomas Stonor Efq; of WatUngton-Park^ near Blunds 
Courts in the Parifhof Rotherfield Py^yard^ which for the benefit 
of the foil , and other conveniencies , being cleanfed in jfuly^ 
AnnoiGj^^, the Work-men finking it a convenient depth, came 
at laft, as it proved, to the top Branches of an Oak.'- relation 
whereof being made to the 6))?^«fr the worthy ViX.Stoner^ a per- 
fon not only curious, but equally generous ; he prefently gave or- j 
der for a further inquifition, and accordingly employed an equal 
number of men to the greatnefs of the work, who finking a fit a- 
bout twenty yards over, and about fifty or fixty foot deep, found 
many whole Oaks ; whereof one ftood upright perpendicular to 
the Horizon^ the others lay obliquely, onely one was inverted, the 
forked 
