424. Jagersprus is an old royal seat, on a finely wooded isthmus. Here is an oak supposed to be one thousand years old; the trunk is about six yards in height and sixteen yards in circumference. Although nearly excavated, it still displays a luxuriant top, and the branches, which extend all round to a distance of ten yards, are of the size of considerable trees. Four peasants on horseback once found room in its cavity, and eighteen men on foot at another time. This phenomenon stands on a moist and loamy soil, surrounded by magnificent beeches and oaks, which afford good shelter to the sire of the forest. In the gardens of Jagersprus, a beech tree also forms a very curious object: its branches have been bent backwards to the ground, and fastened to circular trellises; thus producing a beautiful arbour, impenetrable to rain and heat. This beech is said once to have afforded shelter to a king and eighty courtiers at dinner.
