Chapter Traveller to Trees noted for Specific Virtues and Uses of T by Brewer's Readers Handbook

(These are all from Marsham’s Bath Soc., i.; the Sylva Caledonia; Evelyn’s Sylva; The Journal of a Naturalist; or from Strutt’s three works—Sylva Britannica, Deliciæ Sylvarum, and Mag. Nat. Hist.)

Swilcar Oak, in Needham Forest, is 600 years old (Strutt). The Oak of the Partizans, in the forest of Parey, St. Ouen, is above 650 years old. Wallace’s Oak, which stood on the spot where the “patriot hero” was born (Elderslie, near Paisley), was probably 700 years old when it was blown down in 1859. Salcey Forest Oak, in Northamptonshire, is above 1000 years old. William the Conqueror’s Oak, Windsor Great Park, is at least 1200 years old. Winfarthing Oak, Norfolk, and Bentley Oak, were 700 years old at the Conquest. Cowthorpe Oak, near Wetherby, is 1600 years old (professor Burnet). The great oak of Saintes, in the Charente Inférieur, is reckoned from 1800 to 2000 years old. The Damorey Oak, Dorsetshire, was 2000 years old when it was blown down in 1703. In the Commonwealth, it was inhabited by an old man, and used as an ale-house; its cavity was 15 feet in diameter and 17 feet in height.

In the Water Walk of Magdalen College, Oxford, was an oak supposed to have existed before the Conquest; it was a notable tree when the college was founded in 1448, and was blown down in 1789. On Abbot’s Oak, Woburn, the vicar of Puddington, near Chester, and Roger Hobbs abbot of Woburn were hung, in 1537, by order of Henry VIII., for refusing to surrender their sacerdotal rights (Marsham). The Bull Oak, Wedgenock Park, and the Plestor Oak, Colborne, were both in existence at the Conquest. The Shellard’s Lane Oak, Gloucestershire, is one of the oldest in the island (Journal of a Naturalist, i.).

The Cadenham Oak, near Lyndhurst, in the New Forest, buds “on old Christmas Day,” and has done so for at least two centuries; it is covered with foliage at the usual time of other oak trees. The same is said of the tree against which the arrow of Tyrrel glanced when Rufus was killed (Camden).

In the forest near Thoresby Park is a fine oak, called “The Major Oak,” 35 feet in girth, 5 feet from the ground. Fourteen full-grown persons can stand within its hollow trunk. There is another in the same park, 30 feet in girth. In another part of the forest, nearer Welbeck, is the ruin of Robin Hood’s Larder, held together by strong iron bands. At Clipstone is the tree called “King John’s Oak.” (See Oak, p. 765.)

(28) Olive, used in wainscot, because it never gapes, cracks, or cleaves.—B. P.

The eight olive trees on the Mount of Olives were flourishing 800 years ago, when the Turks took Jerusalem.

(29) Osier, used for puncheons, wheels for catching eels, bird-cages, baskets, hampers, hurdles, edders, stakes, rake-handles, and poles.

(30) Pear Tree, used for turnery, joiners’ tools, chairs, and picture-frames.

It is worth knowing that pear-grafts on a quince stock produce the most abundant and luscious fruit.

(31) Pine Tree. The “Old Guardsman,” in Vancouver’s Island, is the largest Douglas pine. It is 16 feet in diameter, 51 feet in girth, and 150 feet in height. At one time it was 50 feet higher, but its top was broken off in a storm.

Le pin est employé en charpente, en planches, en tuyaux pour la conduite des eaux, en bordages pour les ponts des vaisseaux. Il fournit aussi la résine.—Bouillet: Diet. Univ. des Sciences.

(32) Plane Tree. Grass delights to grow in its shade.—B. P.

(33) Poplar Tree, sacred to Herculês. No wood is so little liable to take fire. The wood is excellent for wood-carvings and wainscoting, floors, laths, packing-boxes, and turnery.

Black Poplar. The bark is used by fishermen for buoying their nets; brooms are made of its twigs. In Flanders, clogs are made of the wood.