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Oaks Famous in Story
(1) Owen Glendower's Oak, at Shelton, near Shrewsbury, was in
full growth in 1403, for in this tree Owen Glendower witnessed the
great battle between Henry IV. and Henry Percy. Six or eight persons
can stand in the hollow of its trunk. Its girth is 40 4 feet.
(2) Cowthorpe Oak, near Wetherby, in Yorkshire, will hold
seventy persons in its hollow. Professor Burnet states its age to be
1,600 years.
(3) Fairlop Oak, in Hainault Forest, was 36 feet in
circumference a yard from the ground. It was blown down in 1820.
(4) The Oak of the Partisans, in Parcy Forest, St. Ouen, in
the department of the Vosges, is 107 feet in height. It is 700 years
old. (1895.)
(5) The Bull Oak, Wedgenock Park, was growing at the time of
the Conquest.
(6) The Winfarthing Oak was 700 years old at the time of the
Conquest.
(7) William the Conqueror's Oak, in Windsor Great Park, is 38
feet in girth.
(8) Queen's Oak, Huntingfield, Suffolk, is so named because
near this tree Queen Elizabeth shot a buck.
(9) Sir Philip Sidney's Oak, near Penshurst, was planted at
his birth in 1554, and has been memorialised by Ben Jonson and Waller.
(10) The Ellerslie Oak, near Paisley, is reported to have
sheltered Sir William Wallace and 300 of his men.
(11) The Swilcar
Oak, in Needwood Forest, Staffordshire, is between 600 and 700
years old.
(12) The Abbot's Oak, near Woburn Abbey, is so called because
the Woburn abbot was hanged on one of its branches, in 1537, by order
of Henry VIII.
(13) The Major Oak, Sherwood Forest, Edwinstowe, according to
tradition, was a full-grown tree in the reign of King John. The hollow
of the trunk will hold 15 persons, but of late years a new bark has
considerably diminished the opening. Its girth is 37 or 38 feet, and
the head covers a circumference of 240 feet.
(14) The Parliament Oak, Clipston, in Sherwood Forest, Notts,
is the tree under which Edward I., in 1282, held his parliament. He was
hunting in the forest, when a messenger came to tell him of the revolt
of the Welsh. He hastily convened his nobles under the oak, and it was
resolved to march at once against Llewellyn, who was slain. The oak is
still standing (1895), but is supported by props.
(15) Robin Hood's Larder is an oak in that part of Sherwood
Forest which belongs to the Duke of Portland. The tradition is that
Robin Hood, the great outlaw, used this oak, then hollow, as his
larder, to put the deer he had slain out of sight. Not long ago some
school-girls boiled their kettle in the hollow of the oak, and burnt
down a large part; but every effort has been made to preserve what
remains from destruction.
(16) The Reformation Oak, on Mouse-hold Heath, near Norwich,
is where the the rebel Ket held his court in 1549, and when the
Rebellion was stamped out, nine of the ringleaders were hanged on this
tree.
Source: Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, E. Cobham Brewer, 1894 More on Oaks Famous in Story from Infoplease:
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