62 STRAY NOTES ON THE ELM. 



that when General Wade and his army encamped here in 1745, a Mr. 

 Whitelock furnished the soldiers with coal, on condition that these trees, 

 and two or three others which until lately stood in Wade Land, might be 

 spared, for it appears they had cut down nearly all others for fuel, so that 

 it is probable these were the only few that survived the campaign, being 

 however (unfortunately it may be said) too near a rapidly increasing town, 

 they were cut down to make room for such modern innovations as now crowd 

 the spot where once they flourished, in the glory of a green old age. The 

 timber was perfectly sound to the very heart, and if the number of concentric 

 rings might furnish correct data, they must have arrived at a great age. 



In the centre of one, near the base, two smooth pebbles were found, one 

 of which I procured; it is perforated apparently by some natural agency, 

 perhaps the pholas, for the stone is quite foreign to this district. I have 

 seen such stones attached to keys by country folks, to keep off ''bogies, witches, 

 and other such cattle," probably it has been an amulet of this kind, dropped 

 here during the so-called ''good old times." A great number of old-fashioned 

 tobacco pipe heads, a gun lock, and sundry collections of beef and mutton bones, 

 were found about the roots; interesting relics of this campaign, from which 

 we may augur that the gallant sons of Mars at least lived well, smoked hard, 

 and doubtless drank deep. 



I have somewhere read an account of a large Elm, in the heart of which 

 several initial letters were discernible, apparently caused by incisions in the 

 bark when the tree was young, perhaps one of the most interesting rtlics of 

 this kind is shown in the museum attached to Kirkleatham Hospital, and is 

 thus described by Mr. Walbran, in his pleasing "Guide to Redcar." "There is, 

 too, a portion of a tree, grown in Newbrough Park, near Thirsk, and sent 

 here by Lord Fauconberg, which, on being cut down, and split up for billet- 

 wood, was found to bear the following inscription graven in rude Roman capitals, 

 about five or six inches high, on a bole or core of about twelve inches in 

 diameter, which came out entire from an outer rind of about four inches in 

 thickness: 



This tre lovng time witncs beare 

 Of toww lovres that did walk hcaro. 



The letters encircle the tree in nine spiral lines, occupying a space of about 

 five feet, and are impressed both on the bole to which they have been origi- 

 nally committed, and on the rind by which they have been subsequently enveloped. 

 Two hearts, each transfixed with an arrow, after the usual and approved fashion, 

 are introduced in the third line, and in one of them may be traced the letter 

 B. The other is uninscribed" 



Not many years ago a large elm was cut up at Tockvvith, when several 

 bullets were found imbedded in it, no doubt relics of the sanguinary battle 

 of Marston Moor, fought in July, 1644. 



Some writers assign the healthy period of the elm to about one hundred 

 and twenty or thirty years, but consider their most profitable age to be from 



