Such a planting of
a holly grove in the central spot of the Forest in the Druid
time, would account for these trees being now so much more
numerous round the Speech House than they are in any other
part of the woods. The Saxon name is merely the word _holy_
with the vowel shortened, as in _holi_day; and that the tree
really was regarded as holy is shown by the custom in the
Forest Mine Court of taking the oath on a stick of holly held
in the hand. This custom survived down to our own times;
for Kedgwin H. Fryer, the late Town Clerk of Gloucester,
told me he had often seen a miner sworn in the Court, touching
the Bible with the holly stick! The men always kept their
caps on when giving evidence to show they were "Free miners."
The oaks, marked A. B., of whose growth statistics have already
been given, stand on the side of the Newnham road opposite
the Speech House. The Verderer is carrying on the annual
record of their measurements.
We return to the house by the door on the west; the one at
which we arrived last evening. It was then too dark to observe
that the stone above it, of which I took a careful sketch
several years ago, is crumbling from the effects of weather,
after having withstood them perfectly for two centuries.
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