Goff’s Oak is a pretty little place, with many interesting features about it. Its numerous cottages—there is only one good-sized house—lie, irregularly disposed on either side of the road, often behind ample gardens beautiful with lilies and larkspur, rocket, wallflowers, hollyhocks, and other old-time flowers. It gains its name from a famous old oak tree, said to have been planted by one of William the Conqueror’s heroes, Sir Theodore Godfrey, to whom lands here had been assigned (hence Godfrey’s—Geoffrey’s Oak—Geoff’s—Goff’s Oak). The venerable tree, of which only the trunk now remains, has a girth of over twenty feet at three feet from the ground. It reminds one of the beautiful lines of Dryden: “The Monarch Oak, the Patriarch of the Trees, Shoots rising up, and spreads by slow degrees; Three centuries he grows, and three he stays, Supreme in state; and in three more decays.” [Picture: Decorative footer] A CHRONOLOGY OF WALTHAM HOLY CROSS, OTHERWISE WALTHAM ABBEY. BY THE REV. J. H. STAMP. 54 B.C. The British Prince Caswallon encamps at Waltham. circ. A.D. 64. Defeat, death, and burial of Queen Boadicea near Warlies, in this Parish. A.D. 894. King Alfred floods Waltham Marshes and discomfits the Danes. circ. 1030. Discovery of the Holy Cross of Waltham at Montacute, in Somerset. Tovi, Canute’s Standard Bearer, builds the first Parish Church of Waltham. 1059. Earl Harold, afterwards King, erects his Norman Church on the site of Tovi’s Church. 1060. Consecration of Harold’s Church on May 3rd, in the presence of King Edward the Confessor. 1062. Foundation of Harold’s secular college. 1066–7. Burial of King Harold before the High Altar. 1177. Harold’s College dissolved and Augustinian Priory founded by Henry II. 1184. Waltham Priory becomes Waltham Abbey. 1201. Hugh Nevil, the Crusader and High Justice, interred in the Choir. 1252. Interment of Archdeacon Passelew, Bishop-designate of Chichester. 1286–1370. Restoration of Nave of Parish Church, Decorated West Front inserted, and Lady Chapel erected. 1290. The body of Queen Eleanor deposited in the Church for one night. 1291–2. Erection of Eleanor Memorial at Waltham Cross. 1307. King Edward the First’s body rests for three months near Harold’s Tomb. circ. 1370. Erection of the Abbey Gateway and Walls. 1400. Abbot William de Harleston assists at the Funeral of Richard II., at Kings Langley. circ. 1509.