234 VOICES FROM THE WOODLANDS. 



sought out noble trees, with the enthusiasm of a pilgrim 

 in quest of some distant shrine, and when found, he did 

 not lightly pass them by. The old linden-tree of Soleure, 

 in Switzerland, said he, " is right noble and wondrous to 

 behold. A bower composed of its branches is capable of 

 holding three hundred persons sitting at ease ; it has also 

 a fountain, set about with many tables, formed solely of 

 the boughs, to which men ascend by steps ; and all is kept 

 so accurately and thick, that the sun never looks into it." 



And yet, however wonderful is the old linden of So- 

 leure, it falls short of the magnificent tilia of Neustadt, 

 in the Duchy of Wirtemberg, from which the city derives 

 a name, being called Neustadt of the great tree. The 

 trunk is twenty feet, and the extent of its branches four 

 hundred and three, spreading from north to south one 

 hundred and forty-five feet, and from east to west one 

 hundred and nineteen. Eighty-two stone columns still 

 remain, which princes and noble persons have set up, 

 either as memorials of their visits, or to uphold the vene- 



