The Alexandria Gazette

From a London Paper.

THE GOLDEN OAK.

Description of the Golden Oak, purchased by the late Thomas Harrison, many years his Majesty's Purveyor of Plymouth Dock Yard and Dean Forest, and felled and converted by him in the year 1810:--It grew about four miles from the town of Newport, in Monmouthshire--the main trunk at 10 feet long, produced 450 cubic feet; one limb 355; one do 472; one do 234; one do 156; one do 113; and six other limbs of inferior size measured 93 feet each, making the whole number 426 cubic feet of sound and convertible timber. The bark was estimated at six tons, but as some of the very heavy body bark was stolen out of the barge at Newport, the exact weight is not known. Five men were twenty days stripping and cutting down this tree, and a pair of sawers were five months converting it, without losing a day, (Sundays excepted.) The money paid for the converting only, independent of the expense of carriage, was £21; and the whole produce of the tree when brought to market was within a trifle of £100l. It was bought standing for £405l. the main trunk was 94 feet in diameter, and in sawing it through, a stone was discovered six feet from the ground, above a yard in the body of the tree, thro' which the saw cut; the stone was about six inches in diameter and completely shut in but around which there was not the least symptom of decay. The rings in its butt were carefully reckoned, and amounted to above 400 in number, a convincing proof that this tree was in an improving state for upwards of 400 years; and as the ends of some of its branches were decayed and had dropt off, it is presumed it had stood a great number of years after it had attained maturity.