_Age of Trees_ (Vol. iv., pp. 401. 448.).--Since the note on the age of
trees appeared, my attention has been called to a discussion of the
subject in an article on Decandolle's _Vegetable Physiology_, written I
believe by Prof. Henslow, in the _Foreign Quarterly Review_, vol. xi. p.
368-71. With respect to the yew near Fountains Abbey, he remarks as
follows:
"In the first of these examples, we have the _testimony of
history_ for knowing that this tree was in existence, and must
have been of considerable size, in the year 1133, _it being
recorded_ that the monks took shelter under it whilst they were
rebuilding Fountains Abbey."--p. 369.
Query: Where is this historical testimony to be found? Nothing is said
on the subject in the account of Fountains Abbey in Dugdale's
_Monasticon_, vol. v., p. 286. ed. 1825.
With respect to the Shelton Oak (Vol. iv., p. 402.) the movements of
Owen Glendower, at the time of the battle of Shrewsbury, are accurately
detailed in the life of him inserted in Pennant's _Tours in Wales_, vol.
iii., p. 355. (ed. 1810); and the account there given is inconsistent
with the story of his having ascended a tree in order to count Percy's
troops. It appears that at the time of the battle he was at Oswestry, at
the head of 12,000 men.
Lord Campbell, in his _Lives of the Chief Justices_, describes the
suicide of Sir William Hankford, Chief Justice in the reigns of Henry V.
and VI., who is said to have contrived to get himself shot at night by
his own keeper. Lord Campbell quotes Prince, the author of the _Worthies
of Devon_, p. 362. as stating that--
"This story is authenticated by several writers, and the constant
traditions of the neighbourhood; and I, myself, have been shown
the rotten stump of an old oak under which he is said to have
fallen, and it is called _Hankford's Oak_ to this day."--See
_Lives of the Chief Justices_, vol. i., c. 4. p. 140.