262 SYLVAN SKETCHES. 



it belonged from the trouble of answering frequent appli- 

 cations for permission to see it : that was bad enough, 

 quite lamentable enough, but that for such a paltry con- 

 sideration, the world should have been deprived of 

 Shakespeare's Mulberry tree, is monstrous indeed ! This 

 vicar, it seems, took a dislike to the tree, because it sub- 

 jected him to the frequent importunities of travellers, 

 whose zeal might prompt them to visit it, and, " in an 

 evil hour," says Mr. Drake, " the sacrilegious priest 

 ordered the tree, then remarkably large, and at its full 

 growth, to be cut down, which was no sooner done than 

 it was cleft to pieces for firewood." 



Could this Mr. Gastrell so strangely deceive himself 

 as to believe that such a tree could be his property ex- 

 clusively ? Did he not know that it was the property of 

 all England, that posterity had a share in it ? How 

 many years longer might that tree have lived and 

 flourished ; how long might art have preserved it, even 

 in decay ; and who but Mr. Gastrell would have removed 

 even the last lifeless rugged stump ? who but would have 

 cherished it while the least splinter remained ! Some 

 little solace it is, that the greater part of the wood was 

 saved from the fire. It was purchased by Mr. Thomas 

 Sharp, watchmaker, of Stratford, who, well knowing the 

 value set upon it by the world, turned it much to his own 

 advantage, by converting every fragment into little boxes, 

 tooth-pick cases, tobacco-stoppers, &c. which were sought 

 after with avidity. 



Having in 1756 destroyed the tree, it was not long- 

 before Mr. Gastrell completed the sacrilege by destroying 

 the house also. Compelled to pay the monthly assess- 

 ments towards the maintenance of the poor, (some part 



