503 UL.MUS AMERICANA. 



particular attention of strangers. According to a statement ni the " Boston 

 Traveller," of the 2(lth of April, 1841, it did not, as many suppose, spring from 

 the soil on which it now stands, but was set out there by Captain Daniel Hench- 

 man at what time, we are unable precisely to say, but believe it was some- 

 where about the year 1G70, and therefore it is about one hundred and seventy- 

 five years old. It was stated by Madam Scott, the widow of John Hancock, 

 that Captain Henchman brought this tree from the North End, and planted it in 

 the place where it now stands, on the moist lands of the Common a proper 

 place for an elm. In AVhiiman's history of the Ancient and Honourable Artillery 

 Company, we find it stated that Captain Henchman was a school-master in Bos- 

 ton, from 1666 to 1671. He joined the Ancient and Honourable Artillery Company 

 in 167.5. " He was a distinguished captain in King Philip's war, of a company 

 of foot, June 26, 1675, in company with Captain Prentice, with a troop of horse, 

 and was the person who set out the great elm tree on Boston Common, for a 

 shade to the military companies which might exercise there in after time." About 

 forty-five years ago, this tree had a large hollow in it, and was apparently rapidly 

 decaying; but by proper modes of treatment, which modern times have discov- 

 ered, and particularly that recommended by Forsyth, its decay was arrested, its 

 vigour restored, and it is now apparently as flourishing as ever, and without any 

 appearance of the hollow, which was once large enough for a boy to hide him- 

 self in. 



The present height of this tree, (April, 1846,) is about sixty-five feet; the 

 girth of its trunk, at a yard above the ground, eighteen feet, and the diameter 

 of its head, ninety feet. 



THE GREAT ELM IN PITTSFIELD. 



" Wise with the lore of centuries, 

 What tales, if thete were tongues in trees, 

 That giant elm could tell." 



In the centre of the public square, in the beautiful town of Pittsfield, in Mas- 

 sachusetts, there stands alone, in all its majesty, encircled by a new generation 

 of lesser trees, a venerable old elm, which measures one hundred and twenty- 

 eight feet in height, with a trunk thirteen feet and nine inches in circumference, 

 at a yard from the ground, and ninety feet to the lowermost limbs. At the time 

 the town was first settled, nearly one hundred years ago, it was a beautiful tall 

 tree, at least a century and a half old, which, from the symmetry of its trunk, 

 and its palm-like summit, was spared by the woodman's axe, while the rest of 

 its forest brethren were felled to the ground. With this much revered and ancient 

 tenant of the soil, there are associated numerous incidents, which, in themselves, 

 would fill a volume ; and it is to be regretted that the immediate object and 

 limited length of this treatise, prevents us from entering into them in detail. It 

 was beneath the shade of this tree that the American troops, of that part of Mas- 

 sachusetts, at present known as the county of Berkshire, and the valley of the 

 Housatunnuk, were marshalled, previous to their march to Bunker Hill. And 

 the first agricultural fair in America was held, in October, 1814, under its 

 boughs. 



At the request of a highly valued friend, we insert the following spirited 

 and graphic lines, by Mr. N. S. Dodge, of Pittsfield, which appeared, a few 

 years since, in the " Berkshire Whig." Their intrinsic merit, more especially 

 from the relation which they bear to this " primeval aboriginal of the soil," which 

 has been rocked by the storms of centuries, and scathed by the thunder's bolt, 



