THE OAK TREE IN ESSEX. 101
Thorington Oaks.—At Thorington Hall there are four monster
oak trees, with trunks varying from twenty-seven to thirty-one feet
in girth, A tradition current in the village asserts that these trees
were mentioned in the Domesday Book. I have, however, searched
Marsh's translation of Domesday Book for Essex, but have failed to
Fig. 9.—Oak at Thorington Hall.
(Photograph, J. C. Shenstone.)
find any reference to individual trees, though the woods are carefully
recorded as affording food for certain numbers of swine. In fact,
so accurate was this survey, that in one case it is stated that there
is wood for one swine (figs. 9 and 10).
Doodle Oak, etc.—In our county we have one parish, viz., Hat-
field Regis, or Broad Oak, which probably derives its name from a
mighty oak tree. This, Morant says :—
" The distinguishing appellation of Regis seems to have been given at the
Conquest, because this was the king's demesne, that of 'Broad Oak' is from the
Saxon, generally thought to be a tree of extraordinary bigness. There has been
another since, for it will hardly be allowed to be the same, the remains of which
appear to be some hundred years old, that covered a great deal of ground. This
called Doodle Oak in the Forest near Stane Street looks as if fresh branches had
grown out of the ground as others decayed or were cut."