17 
And Waller, the gallant and elegant Waller, who never lost sight of an allusion which might add, in the eyes of 
his mistress, to the vivacity of his attachment, thus immortalizes his numbers, by connecting them with a name 
which, whilst England exists as a nation, will always be proudly mentioned in her annals. 
“Go, boy, and carve this passion on the bark 
Of yonder tree, which stands the sacred mark 
Of Noble Sipnzy’s birth ; when such benign, 
Such more than mortal-making stars did shine, 
That there they cannot but for ever prove 
The monument and pledge of humble love : 
His humble love whose hope shall ne’er rise higher, 
Than for a pardon that he dares admire.” 
Sweet sounds often awaken echoes not less sweet; so have these lines of Waller, rushing over a poetic 
mind, filled it with images of the Sidneys, the Dudleys, the Leicesters of former ages, and brought forth the 
following interesting picture of the feelings which Penshurst, so long the noble residence of busy and exalted 
spirits, is calculated to awaken in its present state of comparative desolation and abandonment. 
Ye Towers sublime, deserted now and dreary, 
Ye woods, deep sighing to the hollow blast, 
The musing wanderer loves to linger near, 
While History points to all your glories past : 
And startling from their haunts the timid deer, 
To trace the walks obscured by matted fern, 
Which Waller’s soothing lyre were wont to hear, 
The spoiling hand of Time may overturn 
These lofty battlements, and quite deface 
The fading canvas whence we love to learn 
Sidney’s keen look, and Sacharissa’s grace ; 
But fame and beauty still defy decay, 
Saved by the historic page—the poet’s tender lay ! 
Cuartorre Situ. 
But where now clamours the discordant heron ! 
Sir Philip Sidney’s Oak, so intimatély associated with these recollections, is above twenty-two feet in girth. 
‘Time has begun his depredations upon it, by hollowing the stem, but its branches extend in every direction with 
an amplitude and vigour that denote it likely to remain for centuries, an object equally pleasing to the eye and 
interesting to the imagination ; and the evident care with which all its lower limbs have been preserved from the 
axe, which has despoiled so many of its brethren, is one strong proof how much the name connected with it has 
added to its value in the eyes of its illustrious owners. 
PLATE XXVIII—THE KING OAK. 
Tus Oak stands in Savernake Forest, one of the most interesting spots in the kingdom to the lovers of wild 
woody scenery. Whilst exploring its tangled haunts, and gazing on the massive trunks that every where throw 
their aged arms across his path, the imagination of the spectator wafts him back to the days of William the 
Conqueror, and all the vaunted privileges of the chase. It belongs to the Marquis of Aylesbury, and is almost 
the only forest in England in the hands of a subject ; by whom, in strict language, only a chase is tenable. 
The King Oak, its most venerable ornament, spreads its branches over a diameter of sixty yards, and is twenty- 
four feet in girth. The trunk is quite hollow, and altogether its appearance of age warrants the idea that it 
may have witnessed in its infancy, those rites and sacrifices of our Saxon ancestors, which were held in such 
shadowy recesses, at once to increase their solemnity, and to shield them from the profane eyes of vulgar 
observers. 
PLATE XXIX.—THE TORTWORTH CHESNUT. 
This venerable tree is probably the largest, as well as the oldest, now standing in England. It is brought 
forward in evidence by Dr. Ducarel, in his contest with Daines Barrington, respecting the Chesnut being a 
native of Britain, as a proof that it is indigenous. In the reign of Stephen, who ascended the throne in 1135, it 
was deemed so remarkable for its size, that, as appears upon record, it was well known as a signal boundary to 
e 
aendiseliecierr ia. 
