John Glover OWS (1767-1849) 'THE BEGGAR'S OAK' Oil on canvas 76 x 114cm The celebrated Beggar's Oak stood on Lord Bagot's estate at Blithfield Hall in Staffordshire. In 'The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland', printed in seven volumes between 1906 and 1913, Henry John Elwes describes it in the following terms: 'I visited it in March 1904…It now measures, as nearly as I could estimate, 62 feet high, with a bole of about 33 feet long, and a girth of 24 feet. The roots measure about 25 paces round and the branches cover an area of 114 paces round. It is one of the finest and best-preserved oaks of its type that I know'. Provenance: Christie's London, 14 July 1989, lot 68 (£24,000).