The Fairlop Oak, Hainault Forest

Hainault Forest, near Ilford, boasted a tree with a trunk thirty-six feet in circumference, which was reputed to be nearly two thousand years old. Henry Milbourne's painting juxtaposes the famous tree trunk, known as the Fairlop Oak, with human activity in the foreground. A woodsman carrying a costrel, or ale barrel, on his back and an axe over his left shoulder is pointing out the oak to a gentleman on horseback. On the right are some travellers grouped around a camp fire, conversing with another woodsman with an axe by his side. The fact that the woodsmen communicate with both the gentry and the travellers implies that they form a link between the two contrasting groups.