1392 



ARBOni.TUM AND 1 IJ L Tl C FllM. 



VAirr III. 



a courtier of King Henry VII., wliilst that king kept his court there, and yet 

 (in Oldys's time) in its prime. The row of ehns on that side of the Mall in 

 St. James's Park next to the palace are some of them ahout IGO years of age. 

 One, which stood at the upper end, turning to the Green Park, being blown 

 down, was found to be above 60 ft. in height, and near 1-2 ft. in circumference 

 near the root. They are now (in 1805) considerably more than 200 years 

 old; but very few are remaining [in 183G, none], and those very much de- 

 cayed. Two elms, at St. John's College, Oxford, were sizeable trees in the 

 reign of Queen Marv. Statelv rows of ehns, at Hillhall, in Essex, are said 

 toliave been planted by Sir' Thomas Smith. (Marf. Mill.) On the 29th 

 of November, 18.36, so'me of the largest elms in St. James's Park, and 

 also in Kensington Gardens, were blown down during a tremendous hur- 

 ricane, which uKule dreatiful havock among large trees in most parts of 

 England. Mr. Coxe, in his account of Monmouthshire, mentions an ancient 

 elnf at Ragland Castle, which was 28 ft. 3 in. in circumference near the root 

 (Ibid.) Mr. Boutcher informs us that he sold a line of English elms, about 

 60 in number, at a guinea a tree, at 24- years' growth : they were about 

 18 in. in diameter at 1ft. above ground, and J.O ft. high. It is probably the 

 tree mentioned in the above quotation from Martyn's jMillcr, as having been 

 planted by a courtier of Henry VII., that Mr. Jesse alludes to in the 2d series 

 of his Glcnninii.t. He says, "At the north-west angle of Richmond Green may 

 now be seen the trunk" of an ancient elm, called the Queen's Elm, from 

 having, it is said, been a fiavomite tree of Queen Elizabeth's. Some kiiul hand, 

 with equal good ta.ste and feeling, has planted ivy round its naked trunk; and 

 the inhabitants of Richmond, imicii to their credit, have protected it from 

 injury by surrounding it with a paled fence. The ivy has thriven, and the 

 lately naked trunk is now richly covered with a verdant mantle." (p. 26S.) 

 Mr. Jesse also mentions an elm tree in Hampton Court Park, called King 

 Charles's Swing, which, he .says, " is curious from its size and shape. At 8 ft. 

 from the ground, it measures .38 ft. in circumference It is, perhaps, not 



