6 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 



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

 square piece of ground surrounded by houses, and vulgarly 

 called The Plestor. 1 In the midst of this spot stood, in 

 old times, a vast oak, with a short squat body, and huge 

 horizontal arms extending almost to the extremity of the 

 area. This venerable tree, surrounded with stone steps, 



which there are magnificent specimens in our public parks or promenades ; but it 

 produces a wood of inferior quality, and as it is now planted in the hedgerows of 

 the small enclosures of the south, it must very materially injure the crops by its 

 spreading roots, which shoot up and would soon cover the ground. The tree 

 mentioned in this letter is the Ulmus campestris, Linn. ; it yields a timber valuable 

 for various agricultural purposes, and is esteemed for making naves for cart-wheels; 

 it is of a more spreading character than the others, and often attains to a large size. 

 The Selborne elm, though of less size than some others the measurements of 

 which have been recorded, must have been a large and very fine tree. 



" The oak trees mentioned in the latter part of this letter gained their peculiar 

 character by being very thickly planted, and as it might be called ' neglected.' 

 According to our notion of timber management thinning is indispensable, but to 

 obtain trees of the kind alluded to, the thicker they can be grown, the better. 

 Beech trees with a clean stem of from fifty to seventy feet are very valuable for 

 keel pieces, but the practice of growing wood of any kind in this way has scarcely 

 been practised. Larch planted for hop-poles, or sweet chestnut grown for the 

 same purpose, are treated in this manner ; and what in commerce is called Norway 

 poles, are I believe the first thinnings of the Baltic forests, which have been 

 spindled up by the more vigorous trees to great length and uniformity of thick- 

 ness, and which in all probability would have been ultimately killed." 



Professor Bell (p. 5 note) makes the following interesting observation on 

 this passage : " On the grounds now belonging to the place, and at about fifty 

 yards from the house, stands a very remarkable example of rejuvenescence in a 

 tree of this species, the Ulnus montana of Bauhin. From its great age it had 

 become a mere shell, but still continued to flourish ; and in the month of June 

 1857 it suddenly broke and fell, from the mere weight of its foliage ; for there 

 was no wind at the time. The remains consisted of the broken and hollow base 

 only of the trunk, but had no appearance of vitality ; but it soon threw out young 

 wood, and now forms a large and luxuriant tree, which is yearly covered with 

 profuse foliage, and its new branches extend to nearly sixty feet across. It must 

 * very old, probably three or four centuries, as a single branch, when sawn 

 rough, showed at least a hundred annual rings. The mass of the hollow fallen 



nk, nearly six feet in diameter, is still preserved." A photograph of the 

 is given in Prof. Bell's edition (p. lix). It is now (1899) flourishing, and 



f larger dimensions than in Bell's time. Mr. Paxton Parkin, the present 

 owner of the Wakes,' tells me that the spread of the branches amounts to over 

 eighty feet. [R. B. S.] 



1 Vide the plate in the ' Antiquities.' {G. W.] 



For an account of the Plestor (i.e. Pleystow, or Playing Place) and its 

 ion, see the Antiquities of Selborne ' in vol. ii. [R. B. S.] 



