Port Tobacco times, and Charles County advertiser. (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1845-1898, 1858-03-11
THE BEAUREPAIRE OAK.

But first, ere the sun is set, stay feY
minutes and look at the Beaurepaire oak
while [ tell you the little men knew abou5
it, not the thousandth part of what it couls
have told, if trees could speak as we'll q
breathe
The Baroness did not exaggerate. Ths
tree was somewhat older than even this an
cient family. There was chain of family
documents, several of which related Incl
dents in which this tree played part.
The oldest Of these manuscripts was writ.
ten by monk, a younger son of the house
about five hundred years before our story.
This would not have helped us much. but
luckily, the good monk was at the pains te
collect all the oral traditions about it thai
had come down from a far more remote an
tiquity, and, like sensible man, arrestee
and solidifed them by the pen. He had 8
superstitious reverence for the tree ane
probably this, too, came down to him to the
chronclers that succeeded him. !.
The sum of all is this.
The first Baron of Beaurepaire had pitch
ed his tent under fair oak that stood prop
riuuna-near brook. He afterwards built
square tower hard by, and dug moal
that enclosed both tree and tower, and re-
ceived the waters Of the brook aforesaid. =
These particulars correspond too exactly
with the present face of things and the in
termediate accounts, to leave doubt that
this was the same tree. :,
In these early days, its size seems to hayd
hao VI -al
it was still growing timber. But centu-
ry and half before the monk wrote, it had
become famous in all the district for It's
girth and in the monks own day had ceas-
ed to grow, but showed no sign of decay
The mutilated arm have mentioned was
once long, sturdy bough, worn smooth as
velvet ill one part from curious cause; it
ran about as high above the ground as a
full-sized horse, and the knights and squires
used to be forever vaulting upon it, the
former in armor; when boy, had seen
tihana- -da L nnsa n 4 times .-4-2s ezs
The heart of the tree began to go, and
then this heavy bough creaked suspiciously.
In those days, they did not prop a sacred
bough with a line Of iron posts, as now
They solved the difficulty by cutting this
one of within six feet of the trunk; two centu-
ries later, the tree being now nearly hollow,
q rude iron bracket was roughly nailed into
the stem, and, RAINING out three feet, sup
ported the knights bough for so the mutt
lated limb was still called.
What had net this tree seen since first it
came, green and tender as the cabbage. "a
bove the soil, and stood at the mercy of the
first hare or rabbit that should choose to cut
short forever its fral existence!
Since then, eagles had perched on its
crown, and wild boars fed, without fear of
man, upon its acorns Troubadours had
sung beneath it to lords and ladies seated
around or walking on the grass, and com
mcnting the minstrel's tales Of love by ex-
change Of amorous elances. .--.
Tt Lad seen Norman Duke conquer
England. and English Kings invade France
and be crowned at Paris It had seen a
woman put kni ghts to the rout, and seen
God insulted and the warrior virgin burned
by envious priests. with the consent of the
ours she had defended and the ours she had
defeated
Medieval sculptors had taken its leaves,
and, wisely trusting to nature, had adorn-
cd many church with those leaves cut in
stone. ...
Why. in its old age it had seen the rise
of printing and the first dawn of national
civilization in Europe. It fourishcd and
dccaycd in France, but it grew in Gaul.-
And more remarkable still, though by all
accounts it is likely to see the world to an
end, it was Il tree in ancient history its old
age await the millennium its first youth
belonged to that great tract Of time which
includes the birth of Christ, the building of
Rome, and the siege of Troy.
The tree had mingled in the fortunes of
the family. It had saved their lives and
taken their lives. One Lord of Beaurepaire,
hotly pursued by his feudal enemies, made
for the tree, and hid himself, partly by a
great bough, partly by thick screen of
leaves The foe darted in, made sure he
had taken to the house, ransacked it, and
got into the cellar, where, by good luck,
was store Of Malvoisie; and so the oak and
the vine saved the quaking Baron.
Another Lord Of Beaurepaire, beseiged
in his castle, was shot dead ON the ramparts
by a cross-bowman who had secreted him
self unobserved in this tree little before
the dawn.
A young heir of Beaurepaire, climbing
for ravens nest to the top Of this tree,
whose crown was much loftier than now,
lost his footing and fell, and died at the foot
of the tree. And his mother, in her an
guish. bade them cut down the tree that
killed her boy But the Baron Cher hus-
band) refused, and said, what in the Eng
lish of the day would run thus: ''Ytte Us