ABSTRACT

At the center of the estate area of Bedford, across the road from the Bedford Golf and Tennis Club, at the corner of the Hook Road, and on one of the most loved and prestigious dirt roads in town stands the Bedford Oak, whose branches spread nearly 130 feet from tip to tip and whose age is estimated to be between 300 and 500 years old. The view from the road is a classic pastoral scene: a dry stone wall overhung by the boughs of the great oak and beyond a field framed by forest. It is little wonder that this scene, which so resonates of the cultural codes of the town, has been made iconic, for the view from the road is remarkable for its purity. One sees nothing modern, nothing that one could not imagine being in that view when the first white settlers cleared that field 300 years ago. The only thing that betrays the scene’s modernity is a carved granite plaque attached to the wall by the Bedford Historical Society announcing to viewers that they are in the presence of history.