94 SYLVA BRITANNIC A: 



have adorned, and celebrated with inscriptions, arms 

 and devices ; and which, as so many pillars, serve 

 likewise to support the umbrageous and venerable 

 boughs ; and that even the tree had been much 

 ampler, the ruins and distances of the columns de- 

 clare, which the rude soldiers have greatly im- 

 paired." DISCOURSE ON FOREST TREES, p. 493. 

 edit. 1776. 



Leaving, however, these " monstrosities," as 

 Evelyn styles them, we may turn with perhaps 

 more real interest to the beautiful specimen of 



THE LIME TREE IN MOOR PARK, 



Hertfordshire, the family seat of Robert Williams, 

 Esq.; a place venerable for its antiquity, and fa- 

 miliar to the lovers of gardening, by Sir William 

 Temple's eulogium on it, as affording in his time the 

 most perfect combination of garden elegance and 

 utility in England. This tree, standing upon a little 

 eminence, finely terminates a row of stately Limes 

 which bound one side of the Park, for more than 

 three quarters of a mile ; all of which are more 

 lofty, and some of larger girth than this ; but none 

 equalling it in luxuriance of shade, and redundancy 

 of branches, nineteen of which, almost rivalling the 

 parent stem, have, at about nine feet from the 

 ground, struck out in horizontal lines to the length 

 of from sixty-seven to seventy-one feet ; and from 



