File:Essex naturalist- being the journal of the Essex Field Club (1887) (14782697154).jpg

Identifier: essexnaturalistb08esse (find matches)
Title: Essex naturalist: being the journal of the Essex Field Club
Year: 1887 (1880s)
Authors: Essex Field Club
Subjects:
Publisher: Buckhurst Hill, Essex, The Club
Contributing Library: Harvard University, Museum of Comparative Zoology, Ernst Mayr Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Harvard University, Museum of Comparative Zoology, Ernst Mayr Library

View Book Page: Book Viewer
About This Book: Catalog Entry
View All Images: All Images From Book
Click here to view book online to see this illustration in context in a browseable online version of this book.

Text Appearing Before Image:
nd serve toremind many generations of the good work done by the worthyCouncillor Bedford. At Theydon Ganion there is an oak (fig. 6) which, previousto its partial decay, probably measured 16 feet round its trunk.In Lodge Bushes, a charming portion of Epping Forest, we havealso the Pulpit Oak, and the tree called the Poachers Pocket,both of them picturesque specimens, but comparatively small (fig. 5). When we recollect the many thousand acres of this ancientwoodland, one cannot but wonder that it does not contain morefine oaks than exist in many a private park of not more than adozen acres. Perhaps the explanation given by Fisher in his Forest of Essex, is the correct one. He says :— The comparative scarcity of large trees in the Epping division of the Forest arose from the continual felling of timber, and fromtreating new growth as coppice wood. This was much practised inthe eighteenth century. It is also possible that the right of lopping which prevailed in THE OAK TREE IN ESSEX. 99
Text Appearing After Image:
iG. 6.—Oak af lin-Aonx (Iar.non. Epping Forest may explain the dearth of large oak trees, for thoughthe lopping rights were regulated by law, yet such rights would belikely from time to time to be abused. Nor must we forget that thetrees which most largely prevail in the Forest are the beech and thehornbeam, trees which are extremely scarce in some parts of thecountry outside private grounds. Danbury Oaks.—I believe that I am justified in saying that thespot in all Essex richest in fine oak trees is the park at UanburyPalace. The largest tree is situated S.W. of the Palace (fig. 7). Itnow measures thirty-one feet in ciicumferencc, but probably itsgirth was some five or six feet more before a portion of the trunkcollapsed. The inside of the bole was completely burnt out morethan sixty years ago ; the tradition is that it was fired in smokingfoxes out of the tree. Thirty-five years ago. Bishop Wigram causedan iron band to be put round the trunk to strengthen it. This ironband is now

Note About Images