0'2 WILD FLOWERS OF 



ivsque objects, and attract the curious eye of the 

 passing traveller as the Crawley Elm, on the road 

 from London to Brighton, which contains an apart- 

 ment paved with brick ; the Rotherwas Elm, near 

 Hereford; and PifTs and Maul's Elms, near Chelten- 

 ham. The " One Elm" at Stratford-upon-Avon, a 

 contemporary of Shakspeare's as a parochial boundary, 

 and only recently cut down in the ruthless or careless 

 spirit too often prevalent among ignorant or assump- 

 tive provincial officials, had been long regarded with 

 reverence, and many other old trees of association 

 might be mentioned. A very curious and picturesque 

 old Elm still stands on Barnard's Green near Great 

 Malvern, Worcestershire, bearing a manorial notice 

 on its aged trunk, which is hollow, with monstrous 

 extending roots spreading round on every side, its 



branches 



" bald with high antiquity," 



and perhaps in existence when DE SPENCER, as Chief 

 Justice of the Forests, held his court in Malvern 

 Chace, in the reign of EDWARD II. The steward of 

 the manor was about to fell this tree as useless a few 

 years ago, but the copyholders of the vicinity resisted 

 this unkind attack upon their old friend, and insisted 

 on his right to maintain his position on the common ; 

 and after some dispute, the lord of the manor agreed 

 to allow the old Elm his life interest on the green, 

 subject only to a quit-rent to the merciless winds. So 

 venerable in decay he still stands, with an heir appa- 

 rent rising beside him. The elm, when old, often 

 puts on a very distorted and wenny appearance, swell- 

 ing especially about the roots, and when too often 

 pollarded, becomes so black, stumpy, and hollow, as to 



