West Bromwich.
Your correspondent BURIENSIS (Vol. v. p. 157.) has supplied a quotation
from Mr. Hollingsworth to the effect, that these ancient trees were
probably Druidical, under whose "leafy tabernacles" the first Christian
missionaries preached. This view of their origin is borne out by the
ordinary practice of Christian missionaries to the Heathen of the
present day, who are frequently driven to the shelter of some umbrageous
giant of the forest, to deliver the Word of Life. In some cases I
imagine that it may be found that such trees have been rendered sacred
by the superstition of the native inhabitants; and it is scarcely
venturing too much in supposing, that as the moral wilderness becomes
cultivated, that similar traditions with our own may be handed down to
future generations, and especially if we look so far forward as to the
time when the sable inhabitants of the centre of Africa may in their
progress be occupied by curious questions of a bygone age in _their_ "N.
& Q."