6 
curls over the wound—a sure sign that it continues growing: and hence it is evident, that the hollow oaks of 
enormous size recorded by antiquaries, did not obtain such bulk whilst sound; for the shell increases when the 
substance is no more. The blea, and the inner bark, receive annual tributes of nutritious particles, from the 
sap, in its progress to the leaves; and from thence acquire a power of extending the outer bark, and increasing 
its circumference slowly. Thus a tree, which at three hundred years old was sound, and five feet in diameter, 
like the Langley Oak, would, if left to perish gradually, in its thousandth year become a shell of ten feet 
diameter.” 
“ Hence,” says Mr. Rooke, “we find by this curious investigation of the growth of oaks, that a tree of 
about thirty feet in circumference may be supposed to have attained the age of a thousand years. Upon this 
calculation we may conclude, that the Great Salcey Forest Oak, which is only within two inches of forty-seven 
feet in circumference, cannot be less than fifteen hundred years old.” 
PLATE X.—THE ABBOT’S OAK. 
Tuts tree stands in the front of the noble residence of His Grace the Duke of Bedford, at Woburn Abbey. 
Tt does not appear to have found the soil favourable to its growth, as, though of considerable age, it is small in 
its dimensions, and to a fanciftl imagination it might seem that it had refused to extend its branches, after 
having been compelled to bear upon them, according to a tradition on which its chief interests depends, the vene- 
rable Abbot of the monastery, under whose protecting walls it had been reared; and who, together with the 
Vicar of Puddington, was hanged at Woburn, in the year 1537, by order of Henry VIII., for refusing to give 
up his monastery, according to the decree of that rapacious and arbitrary monarch. “Roger Hobbs,” says 
Dodds, in his History of Woburn, “the Abbot at that time, nobly disdaining to compromise his conscience 
for a pension, as the most of his brethren then did, and as many others, who do not wear a cowl, do in the present 
day, resolutely denied the King’s supremacy, and refused to surrender his sacerdotal rights. For this contu- 
macious conduct he was, in 1537, together with the Vicar of Puddington, in this county, and others who opposed 
the requisition, hanged on an Oak Tree in the front of the monastery, which is standing in the present day. 
He was drawn to the place of execution in a sledge, as is the custom with state prisoners.” p. 88. Stowe thus 
mentions the fate of the Abbot of Woburn, along with that of others of his clerical brethren, in the same cause. 
1537—* The 10th of March, John Paslow, bachelor of Divinitie, then being the five and twentieth Abbot of the 
Abbey of Whalley in Lincolnshire, was executed at Lancaster. More about the same time, the Abbot of 
Sawley, in Lancashire, with one Astbebe, a Monk of Gervaux, was executed. Also Robert Hops, Abbot of 
Woborne in Bedfordshire, with the Prior of the same house, and the Parson of Puddington, were executed at 
Woborne.” 
Chronicle: folio, 1681. p. 474. 
These historical facts lose nothing of their interest by the following beautiful allusions to them in the lines 
of a poet, whose effusions have been already too favourably received by the public, to require apology for inserting 
any of them in this place. 
O ’twas a ruthless deed; enough to pale Yes, old memorial of the mitred monk, 
Freedom’s bright fires, that doom’d to shameful death, Thou livest to flourish in a brighter day, 
Those who maintain’d their faith with latest breath, With seeming joy, and puve and patriot vows 
And scorn’d before the despot’s frown to quail ! Are breathed where Superstition reign’d—thy trunk 
Yet *twas a glorious hour, when from the gaol Its glad green garlands wears, though in decay, 
Of papal tryanny the mind of man And pious red-breasts warble from thy boughs.— 
Dared to break loose, and triumph’d in the ban 
Of thunders roaring on the distant gale ! TW. Wis. 
PLATE XI.—THE CHANDOS OAK. 
Turs luxuriant tree stands in the pleasure-grounds of Michendon House, at Southgate, the property of His 
Grace the Duke of Buckingham. Its girth at one foot from the ground is eighteen feet three inches; at three 
feet, it is fifteen feet nine inches. The height of the stem to the branches is eight feet; and at that distance 
