494 
MISCELLANY. 
some cosy hole at the summit of the Abbey, the Ring Dove coos and murmurs in 
the shady grove, and each sweet warbler joins in the flood of harmony in the 
Vale. Here alone in the county are found those splendid but persecuted birds 
the Ravens; and the river is ever alive with water fowl of varied voice and 
plumage. The whole scene is, in short, a 44 a paradise on earth f and should any 
man be so smitten on a perusal of Zimmermann On Solitude as to desire to pass 
the rest of his days as a hermit, this, unquestionably, is the place for him. 
BOTANY. 
Celebrated Oaks. —The oldest Oak in England is supposed to be the Parlia¬ 
ment Oak (so called from the tradition of Edward I. holding a Parliament under 
it's branches^ in Clipstone Park, belonging to the Duke of Portland ; the park 
being also the most ancient in the island; it was a park before the Conquest, and 
was seized as such by the Conqueror. The tree is supposed to be 1,500 years 
old. The tallest Oak in England was the property of the same nobleman, and 
was called the DuJces walking-stick; was higher than Westminster Abbey; and 
stood till of late years, 'i he largest Oak in England is the Calthorpe Oak, 
Yorkshire. It measures 78 feet in circumference where the trunk meets the 
ground. The three-shire Oak> at Worksop, was so called from covering parts of 
the counties of York, Nottingham, and Derby. It had the greatest expanse of 
any recorded in this island, dropping over 779 square yards. The most productive 
Oak was that of Gelonos, in Monmouthshire, felled in 1810. The bark brought 
£200, and its timber £670. In the mansion of Tredegar Park, Monmouthshire, 
there is said to be a room 42 feet long and 27 broad, the floor and wainscot of 
which were the produce of a single tree grown on the estate. 
An Audience op Beans. —Baked beans, it is said, are a common dish at a 
Sunday dinner. A clergyman has computed that he 44 has preached regularly 
every Sabbath afternoon to fifty-five bushels and three pecks of baked beans, 
while their owners were mostly asleep.”— New- York paper. 
GEOLOGY. 
Blasting Rocks by Galvanism. —A new mode of blasting rocks, viz., by the 
aid of galvanism, was lately tried by the inventor, Mr. Martin Roberts, at 
Craigleith Quarry, near Edinburgh, and answered admirably. An account of the 
trial appeared in The Scotsman , and other Edinburgh papers. 
Dr. Pye Smiths Lectures on Geology.— Dr. Pye Smith has recently under¬ 
taken the difficult task of reconciling Scripture and science, in a course of lectures 
on Geology and Revelation, in London. Of these lectures it has been said that 
44 they presented a scene of gratified irreverence seldom, perhaps, surpassed by 
any assembly of Infidels congregated for the express purpose of enjoying an 
