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Article A CHAPTER ON OAKS. ← Page 3 of 6 →
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
A Chapter On Oaks.
hut one branch to crown its head , Avbioh , however , yields a good supply of acorns , which are carefully gathered ancl planted each year by direction of His Grace the Duke of Portland . Great pains have been taken to preserve this splendid monument of antiquity , hy numerous props clasped with iron bars ; and in some places there are patches of lead , forming an artificial bark , to protect it from rain . " Near at hand is another tree , likewise of oak , one hundred and eleven feet six
inches high , containing four hundred and forty solid feet of timber , and of the computed Avofght of eleven tons .. This is termed ' the duke ' s walking stick . '" Tbe largest Oak in England is said to be at Calthorpe , in Yorkshire ; it measures 78 feet in circumference Avhere it meets the ground . The Builder of March 17 th , 1877 , places on record the MloAving account of a large Oak tree : —
" A feAV clays ago the Tyberton Timber Avas sold . The sale Avas rendered especially interesting from its including the ' Monarch Oak , ' said to be the largest tree in Herefordshire . The reason for cutting down this ' king of the forest' Avas because it has been three times struck by lightening , Avithin the last seven years , and though these repeated attacks hare shattered a great part of its top , it still contains upAvards of one thousand cubic feet of timber . Its girth is sixty six feet . "
Mr . H . Hems , the Avell-known sculptor of Exeter , exhibited at the Centennial Exhibition an oak chest , Avhich deserves special mention , the carved details of Avhich are exact reproductions of existing examples of the Early Perpendicular Gothic in the West of England , is intended as a receptacle for communion or family plate . • The old Oak from which it Avas made was formerly a beam in Salisbury Cathedral , from / whence it was removed in the course of the restoration of that fabricabout 18 months ago .
, Tbe beam was built into , the cathedral in 1216 , and must , therefore , for over 600 years have formed a portion of that venerable pile , and to its age is doubtless due the richness of tone ancl colour which , the chest presents . It has twelve carved panels , all of AA'hich differ in design , each panel being surmounted by an elegant patevas . The lid of the chest , Avhich is of great weight , is secured by three heavy padlocks—one being in the centre , and the others at either end .
It is knoAvn that the Oak which is said to have proved fatal to William Kufus was standing , not long since , in the NOAV Forest , in Hampshire . A venerable Oak stood , not long since , at Tormond . Wood , SthiingsMre , under Avhich , tradition says , William Wallace convened his folloAvers . There are vestiges of the ancient Druids in the neighbourhood of this tree , which was 22 feet in circumference . There are other Oaks in Great Britain Avhich are probably more than 1 , 000 years old . Oaks and yewsthe most venerable of our treesarein several instancesso old that
, , , , it is difficult to form an estimate of the time which . has passed since they were planted . Several Oaks felled in Sherwood Forest , about a quarter of a century ago , exposed , on being saAvn up , the date 1212 , and the mark or cipher of Kmg John ; ancl it has been calculated that these trees must have been several centuries old at the time the marks Avere made .
In 1867 , L . Booth , 307 , Begent Street , published a book , in which is given the folloAving interesting account of this timber : — " We wonder hoAV many celebrated oaks there are in the world . In England alone there is a whole forest of them , each one remarkable for its gigantic size , and still more deeply interesting on account of the historical or traditional associations which attach to it . No tree has , properly speaking , a history except the oak . The Winfarthing Oak , m Norfolk , for instance , is believed to have been called the " Old Oak " in the time of
William the Conqueror . Indeed , according to the opinion of learned Avriters on the subject , this more than venerable—this very ancient—tree is probably fifteen hundred years old , and thus seven hundred years older than the Concpiest . Its circumference at the extremities of the roots is 70 ft . ; in the middle it is 40 ft . The Threeshire Oak , near Worksop , was so situated that it covered part of three Counties—York , Nottingham and Derby , and dripped over 777 square yards . But even this tree Avas a sapling compared Avith the Spread Oak in Worksop Park , Avhich dripped -over an area of nearly
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
A Chapter On Oaks.
hut one branch to crown its head , Avbioh , however , yields a good supply of acorns , which are carefully gathered ancl planted each year by direction of His Grace the Duke of Portland . Great pains have been taken to preserve this splendid monument of antiquity , hy numerous props clasped with iron bars ; and in some places there are patches of lead , forming an artificial bark , to protect it from rain . " Near at hand is another tree , likewise of oak , one hundred and eleven feet six
inches high , containing four hundred and forty solid feet of timber , and of the computed Avofght of eleven tons .. This is termed ' the duke ' s walking stick . '" Tbe largest Oak in England is said to be at Calthorpe , in Yorkshire ; it measures 78 feet in circumference Avhere it meets the ground . The Builder of March 17 th , 1877 , places on record the MloAving account of a large Oak tree : —
" A feAV clays ago the Tyberton Timber Avas sold . The sale Avas rendered especially interesting from its including the ' Monarch Oak , ' said to be the largest tree in Herefordshire . The reason for cutting down this ' king of the forest' Avas because it has been three times struck by lightening , Avithin the last seven years , and though these repeated attacks hare shattered a great part of its top , it still contains upAvards of one thousand cubic feet of timber . Its girth is sixty six feet . "
Mr . H . Hems , the Avell-known sculptor of Exeter , exhibited at the Centennial Exhibition an oak chest , Avhich deserves special mention , the carved details of Avhich are exact reproductions of existing examples of the Early Perpendicular Gothic in the West of England , is intended as a receptacle for communion or family plate . • The old Oak from which it Avas made was formerly a beam in Salisbury Cathedral , from / whence it was removed in the course of the restoration of that fabricabout 18 months ago .
, Tbe beam was built into , the cathedral in 1216 , and must , therefore , for over 600 years have formed a portion of that venerable pile , and to its age is doubtless due the richness of tone ancl colour which , the chest presents . It has twelve carved panels , all of AA'hich differ in design , each panel being surmounted by an elegant patevas . The lid of the chest , Avhich is of great weight , is secured by three heavy padlocks—one being in the centre , and the others at either end .
It is knoAvn that the Oak which is said to have proved fatal to William Kufus was standing , not long since , in the NOAV Forest , in Hampshire . A venerable Oak stood , not long since , at Tormond . Wood , SthiingsMre , under Avhich , tradition says , William Wallace convened his folloAvers . There are vestiges of the ancient Druids in the neighbourhood of this tree , which was 22 feet in circumference . There are other Oaks in Great Britain Avhich are probably more than 1 , 000 years old . Oaks and yewsthe most venerable of our treesarein several instancesso old that
, , , , it is difficult to form an estimate of the time which . has passed since they were planted . Several Oaks felled in Sherwood Forest , about a quarter of a century ago , exposed , on being saAvn up , the date 1212 , and the mark or cipher of Kmg John ; ancl it has been calculated that these trees must have been several centuries old at the time the marks Avere made .
In 1867 , L . Booth , 307 , Begent Street , published a book , in which is given the folloAving interesting account of this timber : — " We wonder hoAV many celebrated oaks there are in the world . In England alone there is a whole forest of them , each one remarkable for its gigantic size , and still more deeply interesting on account of the historical or traditional associations which attach to it . No tree has , properly speaking , a history except the oak . The Winfarthing Oak , m Norfolk , for instance , is believed to have been called the " Old Oak " in the time of
William the Conqueror . Indeed , according to the opinion of learned Avriters on the subject , this more than venerable—this very ancient—tree is probably fifteen hundred years old , and thus seven hundred years older than the Concpiest . Its circumference at the extremities of the roots is 70 ft . ; in the middle it is 40 ft . The Threeshire Oak , near Worksop , was so situated that it covered part of three Counties—York , Nottingham and Derby , and dripped over 777 square yards . But even this tree Avas a sapling compared Avith the Spread Oak in Worksop Park , Avhich dripped -over an area of nearly