Wilfred Middlebrook, in The Changing Face Of Warminster, first written in 1960 and revised in 1971, noted:
Another tree that figures in the history of Bishopstrow was also an oak. It was a hollow tree and the last home of Juliana Pobjoy in the eighteenth century.
The story goes that Juliana, a wealthy woman who claimed to be a relative of the millionaire Beckfords of Fonthill, met Beau Nash at Bishopstrow. They eloped, were ‘married’ at Gretna Green, then went to live in Bath, until her money was done, when Beau Nash went abroad to get away from her.
After years of poverty and a bad attack of smallpox, Juliana Pobjoy returned to Bishopstrow, where she lived with her faithful pug dog in a hollow oak that had been blasted by lightning. She had made a vow “never to tread threshold or floor, never more to lay head on pillow or bed, never more to make friends.”
The poor, crazy woman managed to keep herself by doing needlework, and by gathering herbs for Thomas Squire, a surgeon of Warminster. Dr. Squire married the daughter of a Bishopstrow rector. Dr. squire died in 1761 and was buried in the Minster Churchyard.
The end of Miss Pobjoy was as tragic as her life; she was found dead one cold winter’s morning, “stretched in the cold morning air, on the snow-covered earth, near the house of her birth, with her dog frozen dead on her breast.”