282 SYLVAN WINTER. 



massy pieces of timber which were brought to 

 Rome on this occasion, the' trunk of a Larch was 

 of so prodigious a size, that the emperor, instead 

 of using it in his works, ordered it to be laid up 

 as a curiosity. It measured a hundred and twenty 

 feet in length, carrying a diameter of two feet to 

 the very end (Pliny, Nat. Hist. 1. xvi. c. 40). 

 When this Larch was alive, with all the furniture 

 of its vast top and gigantic limbs in proportion 

 to such a trunk, it must have been an astonishing 

 tree. The largest tree that ever was known to be 

 brought into Britain formed the mainmast of the 

 Royal Sovereign, in Queen Anne's time. It was 

 ninety feet long, and thirty-five inches in 

 diameter (" Sylva," p. 228). Mr. Evelin, from 

 whom we have this account, mentions in the 

 same place a still larger tree, which formed the 

 keel of the Crown, a French ship of the last 

 century. It was a hundred and twenty feet long, 

 which is the length of Tiberius' s Larch, though 

 it had not probably the circumference of that tree. 

 The masts of our ships of war, at present,' adds 

 Gilpin, ' are never made of single trees. It is the 

 method to lay two or three trees together, and 



