The Oldest Tree The question is suggested, how old can
a tree be Elwes, who was a great authority, gave 2,000 years to this famous Whiligh Oak, but I should doubt whether any authority of today would accept his record, would even grant him half his estimate. Trees of a thousand years old are pointed out to one in many parts of the world : certain olives for examples in Majorca and the "dragon tree" in the garden of Government House in Gibraltar. The round number comes sweetly to the lips. Probably the olive lives to as good, or green, an old age as any European tree, and the gargoyles of the trunks often grin "like an antic," mocking at time. They may see a thousand years out ; but I should doubt whether any single tree in Britain is known to be a thousand years old . I suppose the palm would go to the oaks—the oaks, say, of Aldermaston in Berkshire, of Hatfield in Herts., of Whiligh on the Surrey-Sussex border. Sir George Courthope, whose family records in Surrey predate most trees, might have some material help for the tree biographer.
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