Malta.
Age of Trees (Vol. v., passim).—In the Saturday Magazine of Dec. 29, 1832, mention is made
of Owen Glendower's Oak, at Shelton, near Shrewsbury,—a tree famed from the tradition attached to it, which states that the celebrated chieftain whose name it bears overlooked, from its branches, the desperate battle which took place between Henry IV. and Sir Henry Percy, on the 20th July, 1403.
"There is no difficulty, in believing," says E. B., "from the present appearance of the tree, that it is old enough to have been of a considerable size in the year 1403. Oaks are known to live to a much greater age than this; and there are documents which prove that the Shelton Oak was a fine large tree some centuries ago. It is perfectly alive, and bears some hundreds of acorns every year, though it has great marks of age, and is so hollow in the inside, that it seems to stand on little more than a circle of bark. At least six or eight persons might stand within it.
"The girth at the bottom, close to the ground, is 44 feet 3 inches; at five feet from the ground, 25 feet 1 inch; at eight feet from the ground, 27 feet 4 inches. Height of the tree, 41 feet 6 inches."
What is known of this old oak at the present time? If it has passed away, perhaps its memory may claim a place in your columns: if not, will some of your correspondents give me some information respecting it?
W. W.
Malta.
Mummies in Germany (Vol. vi., passim).—In a large hall under the Capuchin convent at Florian, and only ten minutes' walk from Valetta, there is a collection of "baked friars," as so termed in common parlance at this island.
The niches in the walls are all filled, and when one of the order now dies, that mummy which has been the longest exposed, or most decayed, is removed to make way for the remains of him who is lately deceased.
What with the appearance of these mummies, and the smell which comes from them, one visit will satisfy the most curious in such matters.