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poet, but with the precision of a naturalist; every 
peculiarity is noticed, and with such effect, that his 
description has the vividness and reality of a painting. 
Our own poets, in unnumbered passages, many of them 
of great beauty, have done homage to this tree; but 
to select from so ample a store would be a work of 
time and labour; to quote all, a thing impossible. 
The oak is remarkable for its slowness of growth, 
and amazing longevity. It lives to a patriarchal age, 
well deserving the emphatic epithet of “ monumental 
oak,” bestowed on it by Milton, and the more pompous 
title of Cowper — 
“ Lord of the woods, the long-surviving oak.” 
Computing the years it has numbered by the concentric 
rings or layers of wood, each of which records a year, 
some of them carry us back many centuries. Evelyn 
and Gilpin, those biographers of the forest, mention 
several instances of remarkable longevity. The latter, 
indeed, speaks of “ a few venerable oaks in the New 
Forest, that chronicle on their furrowed trunks ages 
before the conquest.” To these authors we refer our 
readers for all the various legends, historical or fanciful, 
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