In other cases, however, the historical evidence extant, if not altogether free from doubt, is sufficient to carry the age of a tree back to a remote date. The Swilcar Lawn oak, in Needwood Forest, Staffordshire, is stated by Strutt, p. 2., "to be known by historical documents to be at this time [1822] six hundred years old; and it is still far from being in the last stage of decay." Of a great elm growing at Chipstead Place in Kent, he says: "Its appearance altogether savours enough of antiquity to bear out the tradition annexed to it, that in the time of Henry V. a fair was held annually under its branches; the high road from Rye in Sussex to London then passing close by it." (P. 5.) If this tradition be authentic, the elm in question must have been a large and wide-spreading tree in the years 1413-22. A yew-tree at Ankerwyke House, near Staines, is supposed to be of great antiquity. There is a tradition that Henry VIII. occasionally met Anne Boleyn under its branches: but it is not stated how high this tradition ascends. (Ib., p. 8.) The Abbot's Oak, near Woburn Abbey, is stated to derive its name from the fact that the abbot of the monastery was, by order of Henry VIII., hung from its branches in 1537. (Ib., p. 10.) But Query, is this an authentic fact?
There is a tradition respecting the Shelton Oak near Shrewsbury, that before the battle of Shrewsbury between Henry IV. and Hotspur, in 1403, Owen Glendower reconnoitred the field from its branches, and afterwards drew off his men. Positive documentary evidence, in the possession of Richard Hill Waring, Esq., is likewise cited, which shows that this tree was called "the Great Oak" in the year 1543 (Ib. p. 17.). There is a traditional account that the old yew-trees at Fountains Abbey existed at the foundation of the abbey, in the year 1132; but the authority for this tradition, and the time at which it was first recorded, is not stated. (P. 21.) The Abbot's Willow, near Bury St. Edmund's, stands on a part of the ancient demesne of the Abbot of Bury, and is hence conjectured to be anterior to the dissolution of the monastery in the reign of Henry VIII. (P. 23.) The Queen's Oak at Huntingfield, in Suffolk, was situated in a park belonging to Lord Hunsdon, where he had the honour of entertaining Queen Elizabeth. The queen is reported to have shot a buck with her own hand from this oak. (P. 26.) Sir Philip Sidney's Oak, near Penshurst, is said to have been planted at his birth, in 1554: it has been celebrated by Ben Jonson and Waller. This oak is above twenty-two feet in girth; it is hollow, and stag-headed; and, so far as can be judged from the engraving, has an appearance of great antiquity, though its age only reaches back to the sixteenth century. (P. 27.) The Tortworth Chestnut is described as being not only the largest, but the oldest tree in England: Evelyn alleges that "it continued a signal boundary to that manor in King Stephen's time, as it stands upon record;" but the date of the record is not mentioned. We can hardly suppose that it was cotemporaneous. (Ib. p. 29.) An elm at Chequers in Buckinghamshire is reported, by a tradition handed down in the families of the successive owners, to have been planted in the reign of Stephen. (Ib. p. 38.) Respecting the Wallace Oak, at Ellerslie near Paisley, it is reported that Sir William Wallace, and three hundred of his men, hid themselves among its branches from the English. This legend is probably fabulous; if it were true, it would imply that the tree was in its full vigour at the end of the thirteenth century. (Ib. p. 5.) The ash at Carnock, in Stirlingshire, supposed to be the largest in Scotland, and still a luxuriant tree, was planted about the year 1596, by Sir Thomas Nicholson of Carnock, Lord Advocate of Scotland in the reign of James VI. (Ib. p. 8.)
Marshall, in his Work on Planting and Rural Ornament (2 vols. 1796) refers to a paper on the age of trees, by Mr. Marsham, in the first volume of the Transactions of the Bath Agriculture Society, in which the Tortworth Chestnut is calculated to be not less than 1100 years old. Marshall, who appears to have examined this tree with great care, corrects the account given by Mr. Marsham, and states that it is not one, but two trees. Sir Robert Atkins, in his History of Gloucestershire, says: "By tradition this tree was growing in King John's reign." Evelyn, however, as we have already seen, speaks of a record that it served as a manor boundary in the reign of Stephen. Query, on what authority do these statements rest? Marshall thinks that a duration of nearly a thousand years may be fairly assigned to the Tortworth tree; and he adds:
"If we consider the quick growth of the chestnut, compared with that of the oak, and at the same time the inferior bulk of the Tortworth Chestnut to the Cowthorp, the Bentley, and the Boddington oaks, may we not venture to infer that the existence of these truly venerable trees commenced some centuries prior to the era of Christianity?"
The oaks here alluded to by Marshall are of immense size. The Cowthorp Oak is near Wetherby; the Bentley Oak, in Holt Forest, near Bentley; the Boddington Oak, between Cheltenham and Tewksbury (vol. ii. pp. 127. 298.).
Perhaps some of your correspondents may be able to point out authentic evidence respecting the true dates of ancient trees. A large tree is a subject of interest to the entire neighbourhood: it receives an individual name, like a river, a mountain, or a building; and by its permanence it affords a fixed point for a faithful local tradition to rest upon. On the other hand, the infidelity of oral tradition is well known; and the mere interest which attaches to a tree of unusual size is likely to give birth to a romantic legend, when its true history has been forgotten. The antiquary and the botanist may assist one another in determining the age of trees. By the authentic evidence of their duration which the former is able to furnish, the latter may establish tests by which their longevity may be calculated.
L.
LINES ATTRIBUTED TO ADMIRAL BYNG.
The following lines are copied, verbatim et literatim, from a window pane in an upstairs room of the Talbot Inn, Ripley. The tradition is that they were written by Admiral Byng, who was confined in the room as a prisoner when on his way to Portsmouth; that sentinels were placed on the staircase outside; that during the night the admiral walked past the sleeping guard, gathered some flowers from the inn garden, and returned to his room; and that on leaving the following morning, he told the Inn Lady he should see her on his way back to London, when he was acquitted.
"Come all you true Britons, and listen to me;