1893.] ESSAYS. 63 



The diameter of its spread from north to south is eighty feet, and it 

 will not vary very much from this from east to west. 



A short distance south of the first described tree, and at the junc- 

 tion of Main Street and Huguenot Avenue, is the second of the trio. 

 This tree has a rugged and picturesque appearance, as if it had with- 

 stood the whacks and blows from the storms of centuries. Its body 

 is studded with welts and burls, and its branches are twisted and con- 

 torted, yet withal it has the aspect of a victor. It is the smallest of 

 the trio, measuring at five feet from the ground 9 feet and G inches. 

 Its situation is only three or four rods west of the Norwich and 

 Worcester Railroad, and it is within a stone's throw of the site of the 

 principal of the two mills built by the Huguenots, and the centre of 

 their settlement. 



Pursuing Huguenot Avenue for a few rods one conies to the third, 

 and largest, of this trio of oaks. It is located near the residence of 

 Mr. Ebenezer Humphrey, the fourth in descent from the original set- 

 tler of that name to occupy the same farm. This tree at three feet 

 from the ground has a girth of 16 feet and 2 inches, and at five feet 

 14 feet and 5 inches. It is 75 feet in height, and an immense amount 

 of wood is represented in its numerous branches. On the north and 

 northwest sides of the tree the branches have been shortened by the 

 elements, but upon the south they extend for a distance of fifty feet. 



A little distance beyond this tree the Huguenots built their church, 

 and still farther beyond is the location of the fort. Within full view 

 of the tree is an elevation known since the days of Huguenots as 

 Bondet Hill, so named in honor of their pastor. Over the summit of 

 this hill passed the famous Indian highway known as the Connecticut 

 path, and to the northeast of this was another trail called the Qua- 

 boag path, which led to the Brookfields. 



Winchendon has a stately and wide-spreading elm, which com- 

 memorates the memory of the first settled minister of the town, and 

 it is the only monument to his name, for he sleeps in an unknown 

 grave in the little cemetery, but a few rods distant from the tree 

 which he planted upon one of the days between 1762 and 1768. He 

 planted it in the yard of his modest and primitive residence, which 

 was valued after his death, in 1768, at six pounds sterling, or less 

 than $30. 



The tree is located near the old Common, in that part of Winchen- 

 don which was the first to be settled, and fully a mile and a half south 

 of the present business centre. It occupies the broad summit of a 

 hill, from which a view is had of a large section of Worcester County, 



