4 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 



LETTER II. To T. PENNANT, ESQ. 



Ix the court of Norton farm-house, a manor-farm to the north- 

 west of the village, on the white malms, stood within these 

 twenty years a broad-leaved elm, orwych hazel, ulmus folio latis&imo 

 scabro of Ray,* which, though it had lost a considerable leading 

 bough, in the great storm in the year 1703, equal to a moderate 

 tree, yet, when felled, contained eight loads of timber ; and, be- 

 ing too bulky for a carriage, was sawn off at seven feet above the 

 butt, where it measured nearly eight feet in the diameter. This 

 elm I mention to show to what a bulk planted elms may attain, 

 as this tree must certainly have been such from its situation. 



In the centre of the village, and near the church, is a square 

 piece of ground surrounded by houses, and vulgarly called the 

 Plestor.f In the midst of this spot stood, in old times, a vast 

 oak, with a short squat body, and huge horizontal arms extend- 

 ing almost to the extremity of the area. This venerable tree, 

 surrounded with stone steps, and seats above them, was the 

 delight of old and young, and a place of much resort in summer 

 evenings, where the former sat in grave debate, while the latter 

 frolicked and danced before them. Long might it have stood, 

 had not the amazing tempest in 1703 overturned it at once, to 

 the infinite regret of the inhabitants and the vicar, who bestowed 

 several pounds in setting it in its place again : but all his care 

 could not avail ; the tree sprouted for a time, then withered and 



* Ulmus montanus of botanists, the common elm of Scotland and the north of England, 

 and which is far from being of rare occurrence in the south, is a valuable timber tree, of very 

 different growth from the U- campestru, which latter is more generally known as the " common 

 elm." It is a fine and handsome species, but seldom attains the magnitude of the largest spe- 

 cimens of U. campestris, nor is it so stately and cumbrous in its aspect. It does not usually 

 present so fine a bole, the strength being more in the branches, which, in young specimens, are 

 often of nearly equal size with the main stem, and, being loaded with a profusion of foliage, the 

 sprays inconsequence become pendent and "give the idea," as is well observed in KNAPP'S 

 JOURNAL OF A NATURALIST, " of luxuriance with weakness, of a growth beyond strength." 

 Advancing in age, these boughs become in time less pensile, and project boldly into the air, 

 whence the species has a very pleasing effect planted in an avenue, its huge arms extending across 

 in every picturesque form, and finely contrasting with the rich green of its leaves, which, for the 

 most part, are distributed in dense umbrageous masses. The Wych elm has however on 

 grand defect as an ornamental tree, being generally, in exposed situations, the very first to 

 intimate, by its denuded boughs, the unwelcome approach of winter a character in which it 

 remarkably differs from the common species, the latter retaining its foliage for a much longer 

 period, and, "ere at length its season does arrive," being finely mellowed with the golden hues of 

 autumn. The largest example of the Wych elm on record is one that grew in the park of Sir 

 Walter Baggot, in Staffordshire, and which is mentioned in the second vol. of Evelyn's SYLVA, p. 

 189. This noble tree, after two men had been five days felling it, lay 120 feet in length, and was 

 17 feet diameter at the stool. As Mr. Evelyn remarks, " this was truly a goodly tree." Five 

 species of elm are enumerated by Sir J. E. Smith as indigenous to Britain, and at least as 

 many more have been introduced. They are all closely allied, and some are very difficult to 

 distinguish. ED. 



f Vide description in the Antiquities. 



