BRITISH EVERGRKKNS. 193 



in Needwood forest, ia Staflfordshire. Evelyn says, "It grows spontaneously 

 in this part of Surrey, that the large vale near my dwelling was anciently 

 called Holmesdale, famous for the fight of the Danes. It had once a fort 

 called Holmes-Dale Castle. I know not whether it might not be that of 

 Rygate." — See p. p. 270-71. In T*[orthumberland Hollies are numerous, and 

 of a considerable height. At Detchant, near Belford, in a large natural wood, 

 the Hollies are of a very considerable size; many of them have been cut 

 down as timber, and sold to herring curers. The finest Hollies in England 

 are those at Claremont, in Surrey, where they attain the height of eighty 

 or ninety feet in the pleasure grounds. Bradley, in 1726, mentions Hollies 

 above sixty feet in the Holly-walk near Frencham, in Surrey, in sandy soil. 

 There are also large Hollies in Buckinghamshire and Kent, also in Dorset 

 and Somersetshire. 



In Scotland it is common to most natural woods, where it assumes the form 

 and reaches the dimensions of a tree of the second rank; such as many of the 

 trees mentioned by Sir T. D. Lauder in the Forest of Tarnawa, in Aber- 

 deenshire, so that the Castle of Tarnawa was supplied with no other fuel than 

 billets of Holly. And Mr. Sang, (Plant. Kal. p. 15,) takes notice of the tine 

 Hollies in the pine forest of Blackball, on the River Dee, about twenty miles 

 from Aberdeen. In Ireland the Holly is not very common, yet we have met 

 with some fine specimens of the Ilex A. variegatum; yet they abound and 

 attain a large size at the Lakes of Killarney. 



Pliny tells us that Tiburtus built the city of Tibur near three Holly trees, 

 over which he had observed the flight of birds that pointed out the spot 

 whereon the gods had fixed for its erection, and that these trees were standing 

 in his own time, and must, therefore, be upwards of twelve hundred years 

 old. He also tells us there was a Holly tree, then growing near the Vatican, 

 in Rome, on which was fixed a plate of brass, with an inscription engraven 

 in Tuscan letters, that this tree was older than Rome itself. — (Book xvi, 

 chap, xliv.) Coles, in his ^^Paradise of Plants," tells us that he knew of a 

 tree of Holly growing in an orchard; the owner cut it down, and caused it 

 to be sawn into boards, and made a coffin for himself and his wife also out 

 of the same. 



The wood of the Holly is almost as white as ivory, except in very old 

 trunks, when it assumes a brownish tinge towards the centre, with a fine grain, 

 and very hard, and is readily polished. It is used in the handles of metal 

 teapots, in joinery, cabinet-making, turning, engineering, mathematical-instrument 

 making, for wood engraving, and a variety of other useful purposes too nu- 

 merous to mention here. The bark affords the well-known bird lime, which 

 we import from Italy and Turkey; though we believe a small quantity is 

 made in Westmorland and Cumberland. The bark is also used medicinally; 

 the berries are purgative, and four or five of them will occasion violent 

 vomiting. The Holly should be planted in every shrubbery and plantation, for 

 the beauty of its shining evergreen leaves, and its scarlet berries in the 



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