The Iris Walk in May 



a single leaf, are far more remarkable than the moribund, 

 sparsely-branched Willow. The date of its introduction 

 to England is doubtful, but it was before 1730, for it was 

 included as " S. orientalis, the weeping Willow vulgo " 

 in a catalogue of trees and shrubs of that date, and from 

 Dillwyn's Hortus Collinsonianus we learn " Mr Vernon, 

 Turkey merchant at Aleppo, transplanted the Weeping 

 Willow from the River Euphrates and brought it with him 

 to England and planted it at his seat at Twickenham 

 Park, where I saw it growing anno 1748. This is the 

 original of all the Willows in our gardens. In July 1765 

 I measured a Weeping Willow at Mr. Snelling's at 

 Godalming, Surrey, of about fifteen years' standing ; it 

 measured six feet in girth, or two feet in diameter, and 

 the height in proportion," and therefore we must not 

 credit Pope with its introduction, though we may still 

 believe the tale that he was visiting Lady Suffolk when 

 she received a present from Turkey which was bound 

 round by Willow twigs, and he noticed that some of them 

 were alive, and took them to plant, saying, " Perhaps these 

 may produce something which we have not in England." 

 One of them grew in the garden of his villa at Twicken- 

 ham into the Weeping Willow afterwards so celebrated, 

 and which was cut down in the year 1801, by the then 

 owner of the villa, because he was so much annoyed by 

 the numbers of people who came and asked to see it. 

 Shortly after this the Weeping Willow became associated 

 with Napoleon. When General Beatson was Governor of 

 St. Helena, he had some trees sent out from England to 

 plant in the island, and a Weeping Willow was among 

 them, and had grown into a fine tree by the time of 

 225 P 



