Oxfordで最も古い樹木はどれですか。
Oxford's oldest tree is the yew in the churchyard of St Mary the Virgin in Iffley, on the southern edge of the city. Local tradition and an 1892 account put it at over 1,600 years old, predating the Norman church itself, though a more conservative reading places it at seven centuries or so, contemporary with the church's 12th-century construction. It stands free to visit, a short bus ride or 45 minute walk from Oxford city centre.
St Mary the Virgin in Iffley, on Oxford's southern edge, is one of England's most complete unaltered Norman churches, built around 1170 by the lord of the manor Robert de St Remy and his wife. A huge yew tree grows against the church's southeast wall, its trunk hollow and furrowed, its canopy wide enough to shade several gravestones beneath it. An 1892 account in Chambers Journal put its age at over 1,600 years, which would mean it predates the church by roughly a thousand years and was already ancient when the Anglo-Saxons arrived in the area. Later assessments are more cautious, describing the tree as having a good claim only to being contemporary with the Norman church itself, which would still make it around 850 years old and one of the oldest living things in Oxfordshire either way. The tree is said to have inspired one of Lewis Carroll's illustrations for an early draft of what became Alice in Wonderland, since Carroll, an Oxford don for most of his life, is thought to have visited the church often.