Oak. 
30 
One of the most renowned and belauded trees ever known 
was the famous oak at Penshurst, planted at the birth of Sir 
Philip Sidney. Ben Jonson, Waller, and many other famous 
poets have sung its praises ; but, alas ! having been associated 
with bravery and beauty for upwards of two centuries, by a 
deed of stupid ignorance it was felled ! 
One of the largest known specimens of these grand repre¬ 
sentatives of Jiospitality was probably Damory’s Oak in Dorset¬ 
shire, the trunk of which measured sixty-eight feet round, and 
was capable of sheltering twenty persons in its capacious 
interior. In Cromwell’s time it was inhabited by an old man 
who sold ale to passers-by. In 175 5 > when it was only useful 
for firewood, its time-worn remains realized .£14. It was 
doubtless such a grand old shelter as this that suggested 
these lines: 
“If keen blow the wind, and if fast the rain fall, 
The storm and the tempest we heed not at all; 
Though fifty stout fellows, bold yeomen, are we, 
There is plenty of room in this hollow oak-tree.” 
Another famous oak was that at Boscobel, which sheltered 
Prince, afterwards King, Charles, after his defeat at Worcester. 
The dissolute and ungrateful monarch is stated to have subse¬ 
quently visited his sylvan preserver, and to have taken off some 
of its acorns and planted them in St. James’s Park. Some 
people, who do not object to anything likely to conduce to 
holiday-making, are fond of wearing oak-apples in their hats 
on the 29th of May, the anniversary of the prince’s escape. 
Associated with more venerable memories are the remains 
of Wallaces Oak, in Stirling. It is presumed to have been 
the largest tree ever known in Scotland : around it are signs 
of a Druidic circle, but its principal sanctity arises from the 
legend that under its once great shadow Sir William Wallace 
was accustomed to hold the head-quarters of his army. 
It is said that there is a tree in the New Forest, called the 
Cadenham Oak, which buds annually in the winter, and that 
the country-people assert of it, as they do of the Glastonbury 
thorn, that it buds only on Christmas-day—a truly appro¬ 
priate emblem of the hospitality, peace, and goodwill usually 
so widely spread and generahy felt amongst all Christian men 
on that day of good tidings. 
