94
THE OAK TREE IN ESSEX.
at Hempstead, but that only one was then standing which was much
mutilated and decayed. This venerable tree was supposed to be a
thousand years old, and was formerly 99 feet in height : its boughs
covered an extent of 36 yards diameter, and its bole 53 feet in cir-
cumference. Seven waggon loads of hay have stood under its
shelter at one time." The illustration I give represents the tree as it
was in 1801 ; it was engraved for the "Gentleman's Magazine," in
which journal it appeared in 1802. A part of the tree fell thirty years
ago, and has quite disappeared. Another part fell twenty-five years
ago, and all that is now to be seen of the old tree is lying in a meadow
adjoining the farm-house of "Great Dawkins." I give an illustration
of the ruins of this forest giant.
Fig. 2.—Remains of the Great Oak at Hempstead, 1894.
Fairlop Oak.—Another celebrated Essex tree was the Fairlop
Oak, in the Hainault district of Waltham Forest, of which Mr. Gilpin
remarks in his "Forest Scenery" :
" The tradition of the country trace ; it half way up the Christian era. It is
still a noble tree, though it has now suffered greatly from the depredations of
time. About a yard from the ground, where its rough fluted stem is 36 feet in
circumference, it divides into eleven vast arms, yet not in the horizontal manner of
an oak, but in that of a beech. Beneath its shades which overspread an area of
300 feet in circuit, an annual Fair has long been held on the second of July, and
no booth is suffered to be erected beyond the extent of its boughs. But as their
extremities are now sapless, and age is yearly curtailing their length, the liberties
of the Fair seem to be in a very desponding condition. The honour however is
great. But honours are often accompanied by inconveniences, and Fairlop has
suffered from its honourable distinctions. In the feasting that usually attends a
fair, fires are often necessary, and no place seemed so proper to make them in as
the hollow cavities formed by the heaving roots of the tree. This practice has
brought a speedier decay in the Fairlop Oak than it might otherwise have
suffered.