16 
To this tree, according to tradition, King Edmund was bound by 
the Danes in the year 870, and pierced by their arrows; and the 
story was curiously confirmed, after its fall, by the discovery of an 
iron arrowhead, or at least of a piece of iron, which looks more like 
the point of a weapon than anything else, imbedded in its trunk. 
This curiosity is in the possession of Sir Edward Kerrison, of 
Oakley Park. The circumference of the tree was 18 feet, and it 
contained 16 loads of timber, “ the tree itself not more than four or 
five loads, but its branches were enormous * and as its age (sup- 
posing the tradition to be true) must considerably have exceeded a 
thousand years, (for we will not suppose that the king was bound 
to a mere sapling,) it is worth examining the number and width of 
its annual rings, to see how fast it made wood in its older days.t 
Here is a piece of its wood, necessarily the wood of its older days, 
as the tree was very hollow ; I have measured off 7 inches, and 
marked with dots the divisions of the concentric rings ; there are 
56 of these, giving an average of 8 to the inch, but, of course, in 
calculating the increase of the diameter of the trunk by this 
means, we must consider the rings as a quarter of an inch wide, as 
the circles will be cut twice by the measure This observation, 
however, would not hold good were we employed in measuring 
the rings of the old tree under whose shade we are standing, for 
only a very small part of it, in proportion to its bulk, is living ; 
and the production of new wood must have been long confined to 
a very small segment of the circle. 
A few days ago I took the circumference of twelve oaks stand- 
ing in the avenue leading from Brome Hall (near Diss) to the 
road. I selected these because I knew that there was documentary 
evidence in existence as to their age, and, in answer to a note, 
Sir E. Kerrison kindly informs me that they were planted 125 
years ago. They are fine, well-grown trees, without irregularities 
to impede measurement, and their circumference varies from 11 
feet (the largest) to 7 feet 6 inches, (the smallest,) the average of 
* Note from Sir E. Kerrison, received July 6th. 
t It appears to be a strange thing, and a fault that the writers on trees 
give no information as to the number or measurement of concentric rings in 
the trunks of those ancient trees which have fallen, as such knowledge 
would greatly assist us in forming a correct opinion as to their age. 
