176 VOICES FROM THE WOODLANDS. 



rising beneath summer suns and winter skies, to the height 

 of seventy feet, and measuring thirty-five in girth. And 

 as the elin of Chipstead spread its ample branches over 

 the merry doings of men in Henry's days, when primroses 

 were gathered at Charing Cross, and snowdrops beside the 

 Eiver Bourne, so at the present time, those of the Crawley 

 elm shelter May-day gambols, while troups of rustics 

 celebrate the opening of green leaves and flowers. Yet 

 not alone beneath its shade, but within the capacious 

 hollow which time has wrought in the old tree, young 

 children with their posies, and weak and aged people, 

 find shelter during the rustic fetes. 



The common elm has many brothers, among which the 

 northern, or smooth-leaved, is perhaps one of the most 

 conspicuous. This graceful species grows well on rocky 

 eminences, and produces a very picturesque effect; the 

 trunk soon divides into long and wide-spreading winged 

 branches, which droop with a kind of graceful negligence, 

 suspending their flowers on long footstalks, of which 



