SYLVAX GIANTS. 299 



versity can scarce recollect it in better plight. 

 But the faithful records of history have handed 

 down its ancient dimensions. Through a space 

 of sixteen yards, on every side from its trunk, it 

 once flung its boughs, and under its magnificent 

 pavilion could have sheltered, with ease, three 

 thousand men, though in its decayed state it could, 

 for many years, do little more than shelter some 

 luckless individual whom the driving shower had 

 overtaken in his evening walk. In the summer 

 of the year 1788, this magnificent ruin fell to the 

 ground, alarming the college with its rushing 

 sound. It then appeared how precariously it had 

 stood for many years. Its grand tap-root was 

 decayed, and it had hold of the earth only by two 

 or three roots, of which none was more than a 

 couple of inches in diameter. From a part of its 

 ruins a chair has been made for the president of 

 the college, which will long continue its memory.'* 

 This chair is still in existence, and the Rev. 

 Frederick Buller, the president of the college, in- 

 formed us in 1879 that it was placed in the hall 

 of the president's lodgings, where it could be seen 



* Forest Scenery,' pages 184-6. 



