8 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 114. 



to the portraits of Sir William Wallace'of a passer- 

 by, and was then informed by his companion that 

 he was a descendant. 



I am witness of a strong likeness in a young 

 man, born in 1832, to the portrait of his great- 

 great-uncle, born in 1736, — which carries back 

 the inherited likeness to the latter's father, who 

 Avas born in 1707, and married 1730. It is no 

 mere fancy of my own, but has been noticed by 

 several on seeing the portrait. A. C. 



Bloomerism in the Sixteenth Century. — Hap- 

 pening to pitch upon thefollowhig extract, I forward 

 it to you in the belief that it may, at the present 

 time, have an interest for some of your readers: — 



" I have met with some of these trulles in London 

 so disguised that it hath passed my skille to discerne 

 whether they were men or women." — Hollinshed, 

 Description of England. 



X. X. X. 



Inscriptions at Much Wenlock and on Statue of 

 Queen Anne at Windsor. — Carved in a beam over 

 the town hall of Much Wenlock, in Shropshire, 

 stands (or perhaps stood, for the building was 

 very old thirty years since) the following curious 

 verses : 



" Hie locus odit, amat, punit, conservat, honorat, 

 Nequitiam, paeem, crimina, jura, bonos." 



I am not aware if they have appeared previously 

 in your publication ; but they are worthy of pre- 

 servation, I think, if for nothing else, for the 

 oddity of linking one line with another. 



There is also a couple of lines on the town hall, 

 Windsor, underneath a miserable statue of Queen 

 Anne: 



" Arte tua, sculptor, non est imitabilis Anna, 

 Annas vis similem sculpere ? sculpe Deam." 



The unintentional satire conveyed in the first 

 line is very appropriate, as the statue is a thing of 

 wood, and forcibly reminds one of the charming 

 statue of George IV. formerly at King's Cross. 



Procukatoe. 



THE AGE OF TREES. — THE GREAT ELM AT 

 HAMPSTEAD. 



The question of the age of trees, introduced to 

 your notice by your very able correspondent L. 

 (Vol. iv., p. 401 .), and touched upon by several 

 others, is a subject of peculiar interest, and yet I 

 scarcely know any ancient memorials which have 

 been so much neglected by antiquarian inquirers. 

 How seldom has any systematic attempt been 

 made to collect the existing historical evidence 

 relating to them, and of the few weak efforts 

 which have been put forth in that direction, how 

 insignificant have been the results I Such evi- 

 dence exists in a great variety of quarters, and if 

 your correspondents could be persuaded to adopt 



L.'s suggestion, and take up the matter in a really 

 serious spirit, the nature of your publication, and 

 the wide extent of your circulation, render your 

 pages singularly well adapted for doing really 

 effective service in a cause which is equally in- 

 teresting to the naturalist and the antiquary. 

 What is wanted is, that antiquarian students 

 should bring forward the facts respecting his- 

 torical trees which are to be found in ancient evi- 

 dences of all kinds, and that local knowledge 

 should be applied to the identification of such 

 trees wherever it is possible. If this were done — 

 done, that is, thoroughly and carefully — I cannot 

 doubt that an antiquity would be satisfactorily 

 established in reference to many trees and clumps 

 of trees still existing throughout the kingdom, 

 which it would now be thought supremely wild 

 and fanciful even to imagine. I would not go the 

 length of anticipating that we might establish the 

 identity of some grove in which druidical mys- 

 teries have been celebrated, or (to adopt the 

 words of Sir Walter Scott) of some " broad- 

 headed, short-stemmed, wide-branched " monarchs 

 of the forest, " which had witnessed the march of 

 the Roman soldiery ; " I should almost despair 

 even of identifying the thorns on Ash Down (a 

 place itself named from some celebrated tree), 

 around which the battle raged between Alfred 

 and the Danes : but every one at all acquainted 

 with ancient documents knows how frequently 

 they contain allusions to celebrated trees ; and it 

 is perfectly possible that trees which sheltered 

 King John in his continual wild, impulsive. Arab- 

 like llights from place to place, or under which 

 the Edwards halted in their marches to Scotland 

 or Wales, may yet be pointed out. I have no 

 doubt that Evelyn saw evidence that the Tort- 

 worth Great Chesnut was a boundary tree in the 

 days of King Stephen ; and if such evidence Is 

 not now forthcoming, I by no means despair of 

 its re-discovery. If any one will set himself seri- 

 ously to search for it. We learn in Pepys*, that 

 In his time, in the forest of Dean, there were still 

 standing the old " Vorbid " or " forbid " trees of 

 the time of Edward III. ; that Is (I presume), the 

 trees which were left standing as marks or boun- 

 daries when there was a great felling of timber in 

 the reign of Edward III. Perhaps some of your 

 correspondents can tell us whether there are any 

 such trees known in the forest of Dean now. 



The recurrence of the mention of celebrated 

 trees In early charters, is far more frequent than 

 any one who has not examined the subject would, 

 suppose. There was no kind of " mark " or 

 " bound " more common amongst ancient people, 

 or more frequently mentioned In their written 

 evidences, than large or celebrated trees. Any 

 one may satisfy himself upon this point by a 



* Pepys's Diary, ii. 18. 



