(Private Collection, London)
The venerable oaks of Hyde Park excited considerable curiosity in the early nineteenth century. The sight of two ‘spectre-looking oaks … railed in from the public’ prompted a ‘Constant Reader’ of the London Journal in September 1834 to question the historical association of the trees: ‘they indicate the scene of some remarkable incident of past times, or at least some incident worthy of remembrance, I do not doubt, as mere longevity or picturesqueness of appearance, would not, I imagine, have been sufficient inducements to make the authorities anxious to protect them, in a measure, from rude and destructive hands.’