MAGDALEN COLLEGE 217 



fell before a January hurricane, causing grave damage to 

 Pugin's new gateway, and all were lopped. A few years 

 later, at the building of St. Swithun's the whole row was 

 in imminent danger. The workmen had already begun to 

 sink the foundation trenches so near that the roots would 

 have been cut; fortunately, the Bursar of the time had a 

 soul above architects, peremptorily ordered the building-line 

 several feet further back, and the trees were saved for a 

 generation. Last winter the furthermost Elm by the School 

 was cut down. Had it fallen, it would have felled a lamp-post 

 and perhaps a citizen ; the College, however, has been assured 

 that it will be replaced by another tree. Three Elms are 

 still standing: from east to west their girths are 12 ft. 9 in., 

 ii ft. 7^ in., and 9 ft. 10 in. 



The old English Elms in the Grove date from the Restora- 

 tion period, probably from one of the plantings specified in 

 the accounts. Of several that were felled in 1890 one was 

 perfectly sound. A section showing 220 rings has been 

 mounted as a table-top, and is in the possession of the author 

 thus agreeing remarkably well with the dates in the accounts 

 of these old trees. A chair presented to the Senior Common 

 Room by Mr. Chapman was cut out of the wood of the same 

 tree, and the thick table-tops in the College Kitchen are from 

 a tree of similar age. The first Elms planted in the Grove 

 may have been planted about the time of the foundation 

 of the College, 1467, for in 1677 Plot stated that 



"There is a great old Elm growing near the North-east 

 corner of the Bowling Green in Magdalene College Grove, 

 disbarked quite round, at most places 2 foot, at some at least 

 a yard, or 4 foot from the ground ; which yet for these 

 many years past has flourish'd as well as any Tree in the 

 Grove." 



Like the greater number of our Elms this was in all 

 probability Ulmus campestris. But the giant of the race was 

 the great tree blown down in a snowstorm at mid-day on 



