CHAP. ci. ri.M \\ -EJE. r/'i.Mrs. 1391 



" Mine own hands," he adds, " measured a table more than once, of about 5 It. 

 in breadth, 9| ft. in length, and 6 in. thick, all entire and clear. This, cut out 

 of a tree felled by my father's order, was made a pastry board. . . . The incom- 

 parable walks at the royal palaces in the neighbourhood of Madrid were planted," 

 he continues, "with this majestic tree." These are said to have been the first 

 elms that were planted in Spain ; and Baron Dillon tells us that, when he saw 

 them, about the end of the last century, they were 6 ft. in diameter, and in a 

 healthy state. The plants were taken from England by Philip II., who had 

 married Mary Tudor, daughter of Henry VIII., and Queen of England. 

 Henry IV. of France planted an elm in the gardens of the Luxembourg, in Paris, 

 which stood till it was destroyed during the first French revolution. An elm in 

 Switzerland, near Merges, at the time it was blown down, had a trunk 17 ft. 

 7 in. in diameter, and was estimated to be 335 years old. Queen Elizabeth is 

 said to have planted an elm at Chelsea, which was cut down in 1745, and 

 sold for a guinea by the lord of the manor, Sir Hans Sloane. It was supposed 

 to have become a nuisance to the public road, close to which it stood, from 

 its great size and age. It was 13 ft. in circumference at the ground, and half as 

 much at the height of 44 ft. Before the hard frost in 1739-40 had injured its 

 top, it was 110 ft. high. The Crawley Elm, which has been figured by Strutt, 

 stands on the high road from London to Brighton. It is 70 ft. high, and the 

 trunk is 61 ft. in circumference at the ground. Its trunk is perforated to the 

 very top ; and it measures 35 ft. round the inside at 2 ft. from the base. There 

 is a regular door to the cavity in this tree, the key of which is kept by the lord 

 of the manor; but it is opened on particular occasions,when the neighbours meet 

 to regale themselves within the cavity, which is capable of containing a party 

 of more than a dozen. The floor is paved with bricks. Madame de Genlis 

 says a poor woman gave birth to an infant in the hollow of this tree, where 

 she afterwards resided for a long time A hollow elm stood formerly at 

 Hampstead, but in what spot is uncertain. It was engraved by the cele- 

 brated Hollar, in 1653 ; and fig. 1238. is a copy of it from Parke's 'Hampstead, 

 reduced to the scale of 1 in. to 12ft. " The Great Hollow Elm Tree of 

 Hampstead," as it is called in the engraving, was upwards of 42 ft. high. It 

 was hollow from the ground to the summit, from which the trunk appears to 

 have been abruptly broken off ; and in the hollow a wooden stair, or ladder, was 

 formed, which conducted to a turret on the top, containing seats on which six 

 persons might sit. The following quaint description is given on the margin of 

 the engraving: " 1. The bottom above ground, in compass, is 28 foote. 

 2. The breadth of the doore is 2 foote. 3. The compass of the turret on 

 the top is 34 foote. 4. The doore in height to goe in is 6 foote 2 inches. 8. 

 The height of the turret is 33 foote. 11. The lights into the tree is 16. 

 18. The stepps to goe up is 42. 19. The seat above the stepps six may sitt on, 

 and round about roome for foureteene moore. All the way you goe up within 

 the hollow tree." (Parke's Hampstead, p. 34.) About the time that the 

 engraving was published, a number of rhymes were printed on the subject of 

 this tree, some of them by Robert Codrington ; and others were printed by 

 E. Cotes, and were " to be given or sold in the Hollow Tree at Hampstead." 

 Hollar's engraving appears also to have been sold at the tree. Nine elm trees, 

 standing on Hampstead Heath in 1805, were celebrated in a poem by Edward 

 Coxe, Esq., published in that year. (Ibid., p. 40.) In a manuscript lent to 

 Professor Martyn by Craven Ord, Esq., of Purser's Cross, and probably 

 written by Oldys (the translator of Camden's Britannia, who died in 1761), 

 mention is made of several remarkable elms. One at Charlton, in Kent, 

 about which it is said Horn Fair was kept, spread 8 yards on every side ; the 

 height was about 10 yards, but the trunk not above 1 ft. in diameter. One of 

 Sir Francis Bacon's elms, in Gray's Inn walks, planted in 1600, was felled, 

 upon a suspected decay, in 1720 or 1726, and was 12ft. round; its head 

 contained 45 ft. of timber. In 1750, not above eight trees of his planting vere 

 left. They were planted in 1600. At Fulham are, or were, some elms planted 

 in tho time of King Edward VI. ; and one at Richmond, said to be planted by 



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