Image ID: 21852

Greendale Oak

Courtesy of Mansfield Library

Welbeck Abbey
England

Caption reads: Plate V. is a view of the famous green dale oak, thought to be above seven hundred years old; and, from its appearance, there is every reason to suppose it has attained to that age at least. The circumference of the trunk, above the arch, is 35 feet 3 inches; height of the arch 10 feet 3 inches; width, about the middle, 6 feet 3 inches; height to the top branch, 54 feet. The Countess of Oxford, grandmother of the present Duke, had several cabinets made out of the branches and ornamented with inlaid representations of the oak, with inscription - 'Where all the woodland nymphs their revels play'd, And footed sportive rings around its shade; Not fifteen cubits could encompass round The ample trunk. on consecrated ground; As much its height the other trees exceeds, As they o'ertop the grass and humbler weeds. Lo the oake that hath so long a norishing. Fro the time that it ginnith first to spring, And hath so long a life, as we may see, Yet, at the last, wasted is the tree.' CHAUCER. The drawing of this tree, and of the Seven Sisters I took in the year 1779. I must also say, that drawings of the green dale oak, in several views of it, had been made, several years before 1779, by Grim and others.

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Mansfield Library