16 THE PLESTOR. 



This elm I mention, to show to what a bulk planted 

 elms may attain ; as this tree must certainly have 

 been such, from its situation. In the centre of the 

 village, and near the church, is a square piece of 

 ground, surrounded by houses, and vulgarly called 

 the Plestor.* In the midst of this spot stood, in 

 olden times, a vast oak,f with a short squat body, 



naves, 8660 feet of boards and planks ; it cost 10. 17s. the 

 sawing. The whole esteemed 97 tons. EVELYN'S Sylva II. 

 189. 



Pitte's elm, in the Vale of Gloucester, was, in 1783, about 

 80 feet high, and the smallest girth of the principal trunk was 

 16 feet. W.J. 



Dr. Plot mentions an elm growing on Blechington Green, 

 which gave reception and harbour to a poor great-bellied wo- 

 man, whom the inhospitable people would not receive into their 

 houses, who was brought to-bed in it of a son, now a lusty 

 young fellow. PLOT'S Oxfordshire. W. J. 



* We have the following explanation of the Plestor in the 

 Antiquities of Selborne. It appears to have been left as a 

 sort of redeeming offering by Sir Adam Gordon, in olden 

 times an inhabitant of Selborne, well known in English history 

 during the reign of Henry III., particularly as a leader of the 

 Mountfort faction. Mr. White says : " As Sir Adam began 

 to advance in years, he found his mind influenced by the pre- 

 vailing opinion of the reasonableness and efficacy of prayers for 

 the dead ; and, therefore, in conjunction with his wife Con- 

 stantia, in the year 1271, granted to the prior and convent 

 of Selborne all his right and claim to a certain place, placea t 

 called La Pleystow, in the village aforesaid, * in liberam, puram, 

 et perpetuam elemosinamj' (for free charitable purposes.) This 

 pleystow, locus ludorum, or play-place, is in a level area near 

 the church, of about 44 yards by 36, and is known now by 

 the name of the Plestor. It continues still, as it was in old 

 times, to be the scene of recreation for the youths and children 

 of the neighbourhood ; and impresses an idea on the mind, that 

 this village, even in Saxon times, could not be the most abject 

 of places, when the inhabitants thought proper to assign so spa- 

 cious a spot for the sports and amusements of its young people." 

 W.J. 



f Two species of oak only are admitted into the British 

 Flora, quercus robur, and sessiliflora. Several others, however, 



