E. Wyld, Esq. hath heard it severall times. This gave the
occasion of that expression in Ovid's Metamorph. lib. viii. fab. ii.
about Erisichthon's felling of the oake sacred to Ceres:-
"gemitumq{ue} dedit decidua quercus".
In a progresse of K. Charles I. in time of peace, three score and ten
carts stood under the great oake by Woodhouse. It stands in Sir James
Thinne's land. On this oake Sir Fr. D---- hung up thirteen, after
quarter. Woodhouse was a garrison for the Parliament. He made a sonn
hang his father, or ? contra. From the body of this tree to the
extreme branches is nineteen paces of Captain Hamden, who cannot pace
less than a yard. (Of prodigious trees of this kind you will see many
instances in my Sylva, which Mr. Ray has translated and inserted in
his Herbal.- J. EVELYN.)
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In the New Forest, within the trenches of the castle of Molwood (a
Roman camp) is an old oake, which is a pollard and short It putteth
forth young leaves on Christmas day, for about a week at that time of
the yeare. Old Mr. Hastings, of Woodlands, was wont to send a basket
full of them every yeare to King Charles I. I have seen of them
severall Christmasses brought to my father.
But Mr. Perkins, who lives in the New Forest, sayes that there are two
other oakes besides that which breed green buddes about Christmas day
(pollards also), but not constantly. One is within two leagges of the
King's-oake, the other a mile and a halfe off.
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