Kilkenny.
_The Grindstone Oak._--Can any of your topographical correspondents state
what is the earliest mention made of an oak tree well known in this part of
the country, and the destruction of which by fire, on the 5th of November,
1849, was the subject of regret to all who had seen or heard of it? It was
called the _Grindstone Oak_, and had been a denizen of the forest of Alice
Holt, as many suppose, since the days of the Confessor. It measured
thirty-four feet in circumference, at the height of seven feet from the
ground; and is mentioned by Gilbert White, in his _History of Selborne_, as
"the great oak in the Holt, which is deemed by Mr. Marsham to be the
biggest in this island."