ELM. 181 



hollow ; in later times to a recluse. Lifting its tranquil 

 head above cottage roofs, which it has sheltered for ages, 

 Crawley elm affords, in its rough and knotted trunk, a 

 source of continual interest to the groups of village 

 children, who cluster around like bees, trying their small 

 strength and courage in seeking to climb the stem, while 

 their fathers stand by and recall the memory of similar 

 attempts. 



" Such remembrances invest an aged tree with associa- 

 tions which no works of art can elicit. It seems to live with 

 us and for us ; and he who would lift up his hatchet among 

 its aged boughs, would inflict an injury of no ordinary 

 kind. Who could endure to see its venerable head brought 

 low, its still green branches lying in the dust, its giant 

 roots left bare and desolate ? The old would miss it as 

 an object on which had rested the affections of days long 

 past; the young would lament it as a tree beloved the 

 most ; travellers would seek for it in vain ; and the 

 wanderer, returning to his long-left home, would scarcely 



