Upon a verdant plot of ground, opposite the "Green Man," on the road to Barnet, is a venerable relic, still standing, in the last stage of decay, called "Turpin's Oak." According to tradition, it has weathered some centuries. The notorious Dick Turpin was in his time accustomed to take up his station behind this tree when he was intent upon a freebooting errand in this part of the country; in other words, this tree was his ambush. Its closeness to the high-road rendered it a very desirable spot for Dick, as well as for highwaymen generally, who, about a century and a quarter ago, were continually robbing the mails, TURPIN'S AND CHARLES'S OAKS. 51 as well as commercial travellers (bag-men), proceeding to and fro between London and the north of England. From time to time there have been extracted from the bark of this oak pistol-balls, which had been discharged at the trunk to deter highwaymen, should any have been at hand, from attacking travelling parties. The late Mr. R. Nuthall, solicitor to the East India Company, was upon one occasion stopped in his carriage by two highwaymen, who came upon him from behind this oak, as he was proceeding to his country-house at Monken Hadley, when the above gentleman, being armed with pistols, wounded one of the thieves so severely, that he afterwards died of the effects. This tree still goes in the neighbourhood under the name of "Turpin's Oak." Imagination can scarcely conceive adventures more romantic, or distresses more severe, than those which attended Prince Charles's escape from the fatal battle of Worcester. One of the adventures consisted in his taking refuge in an oak in Boscobel Wood. "At the house of John Penderell they learned that the gallant Colonel William Carlos was concealing himself in the vicinity: Charles instantly sent for him, and the meeting was an affectionate one. From the number of soldiers who were scouring the neighbourhood, it was evident that either to remain in the cottage or in the wood would be alike attended with imminent danger. It was proposed, therefore, that they should conceal themselves among the branches of the thickest oak they could find. In this position the Prince passed the third day of his wanderings. It was the most critical situation in which he had yet found himself. From his insecure hiding-place he could perceive the redcoated gentry searching in all directions for him, while some of them approached so closely as to enable him to overhear the maledictions they were pleased to heap upon his head for the trouble he gave them in seeking him out. Overcome, however, by his recent fatigues, a portion of these agonising hours was passed in a disturbed sleep. With Charles's head resting on his lap, Colonel Carlos watched over the slumbers of his young master, and prevented the possibility of his fall." Dr. Stukeley, the celebrated antiquary, about a century ago, mentions that the "Royal Oak" was standing in his time. "A bow-shot from Boscobel House, just by a horse-track passing through the wood, stands the royal oak, into which the king and his companion climbed by means of the hen-roost ladder, when they judged it no longer safe to stay in the house, the family reaching them victuals with the nuthook. The tree is now enclosed with a brick-wall, the inside whereof D is covered with laurel, of which we may say, as Ovid did of that before the Augustan palace, mediamque tubere quercum.' Close by its side grows a young thriving plant from one of its acorns. Over the door of the enclosure, I took this inscription in marble:- Felicissimam arborem, quam in asylum potentissimi Regis Caroli II. Deus O. M., per quem reges regnant, hic crescere voluit, tam in perpetuam rei tantæ memoriam, quam specimen firma in reges fidei, muro cinctam posteris commendant Basilius et Iona Fitzherbert. 'Quercus amica Jovi!"" "Charles's Oak" perished many years ago; but it has had the singular honour of being transplanted into the heavens: Robur Caroli is now a small constellation in the southern hemisphere. There is still standing in the village of Bale, Norfolk, a gigantic and venerable oak, which has acquired considerable local notoriety, and is highly prized in its own immediate neighbourhood. It stands on the estate of the late William Gay, Esq., in immediate proximity to the village-church. The tree is reputed to be upwards of 500 years old; it is now both branchless and leafless, the trunk alone remaining as a memorial of its former magnificence. It measures 36 feet in circumference, or 12 feet in diameter, at the distance of between two and three feet from the base. The interior, which is perfectly hollow, is capable of containing with ease twenty men standing upright; and a few years ago it was used as the place of abode of a cobbler, who carried on his trade in it for one entire summer, having, for the convenience of his occupation, cut a doorway in the shell, which still remains, but on the side of the tree opposite to that shewn by the accompanying sketch. The branches appear to have been of a magnitude worthy of the trunk; for one of them, which was lopped about sixty years ago, extended to within three feet of the summit of the church-tower, which is itself 54 feet high, and 72 feet distant from the base of the tree. A very old oak was standing until July 1813 at Nannau, the seat of Sir R. W. Vaughan, Bart., near Dolgelly, in Merionethshire, within the trunk of which, according to Welsh tradition, the body of Howel Sele, a powerful chieftain residing at Nannau, was immured by order of Owen Glyndwr. Sir Walter Scott celebrates this tree under the awful distinction of "the spirit's blasted tree." "All nations have their omens drear, Their legends wild of woe and fear: And shun the spirit's blasted tree." 3 Owen Glyndwr The singular burial of Howel Sele thus arose. "the great magician, damn'd Glendower"-claimed the throne of Wales; Howel Sele of Nannau was his first cousin, yet he adhered to the House of Lancaster, and was therefore opposed to his relation's ambitious pretensions. The Abbot of Cymmen, in laudable expectation of reconciling them, brought them together, and apparently effected his purpose. Howel was reckoned the best archer of his day; Owen, while walking out with him, observed a doe feeding, and told him there was a fine mark for him. Howel bent his bow, and pretending to aim at the doe, suddenly turned and discharged the arrow full at the breast of Glyndwr, who, wearing armour beneath his clothes, received no hurt. He seized on Howel for his base treachery, burned his house, and hurried him away from the place; nor was it known how he was disposed of until forty years after, when the skeleton of a large man like Howel was discovered in the hollow of a great oak, wherein it was supposed Owen had immured him in reward for his perfidy. From the tradition it does not distinctly appear whether Glyndwr caused his kinsman to be placed in the oak after he had been slain, or 3 Marmion. immured him alive and left him to perish. According to Pennant, Howel Sele perished in the year 1402, so that his burial-place survived him upwards of four centuries. The oak flowers slightly, but its seed attains to the character of a fruit, the acorn; and this it produces in the greater abundance the older it grows. The name acorn, from aik and corn, as being a corn or grain produced by the oak, indicates the value in which it was held by our Saxon ancestors, who employed it in feeding swine; and such was the importance attached in those days to this food, that woods were estimated by the number of hogs which they could fatten; and in the survey made at the Conquest and embodied in Doomsday-Book, woods of a single hog are enumerated. In years of scarcity acorns became food for the people themselves. Oaks are generally eighteen years old before they yield any fruit, a peculiarity which seems to foretell the vast longevity of the tree; |