BROAD LEAVED ELM. 



LETTER II. 

 TO THOMAS PENNANT, ESQ. 



IN the court of Norton farm-house, a manor farm to the 

 north-west of the village, on the white malms, stood, within 

 these twenty years, a broad-leaved elm, or wych hazel, ulmus 

 folio latissimo scabro of Ray, which, though it had lost a 

 considerable leading bough in the great storm in the year 1 703, 

 equal to a moderate tree, yet, when felled, contained eight 

 loads of timber ; and being too bulky for a carriage, was sawn 

 off at seven feet above the but, where it measured near eight 

 feet in the diameter. * This elm I mention, to shew to what 

 a bulk planted elms may attain ; as this tree must certainly 

 have been such from its situation, f In the centre of the 

 village, and near the church, is a square piece of ground, 

 surrounded by houses, and vulgarly called the Plestor. J 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, and seats above them, was the delight of old 

 and young, and a place of much resort in summer evenings ; 

 where the former sat in grave debate, while the latter frolicked 

 and danced before them. Long might it have stood, had not 



* In Evelyn's Sylva, vol. ii. p. 189, we are informed of a witch elm 

 that grew in the park of Sir Walter Baggot, Staffordshire, which was 

 seventeen feet diameter at the base, and extended, when felled, one 

 hundred and twenty feet. Its timber was estimated at the amazing 

 quantity of ninety-seven tons. En. 



f It is a well established fact, that planted trees do not in general attain 

 the size of natural wood. ED. 



| The Plestor was left by Sir Adam Gordon, a gentleman of Scottish 

 extraction, who was leader of the Mountfort faction during the reign of 

 Henry III, and is thus described by Mr White in the Antiquities of 

 Selborne, " As Sir Adam began to advance in years, he found his 

 mind influenced by the prevailing opinion of the reasonableness and 

 efficacy of prayers for the dead ; and, therefore, in conjunction with his 

 wife Constantia, in the year 1271, granted to the prior and convent of 

 Selborne all his right and claim to a certain place, placea, called La 

 Pleystow, in the village aforesaid, ' in liberam, puram, et perpetuam 

 elemosinam.' This pleystow locus ludorum, or play-place is in a 

 level area near the church, of about forty-four yards by thirty-six, and 

 is known now by the name of the Plestor. It continues still, as it was 

 in old times, to be the scene of recreation for the youths and children of 

 the neighbourhood ; and impresses an idea on the mind, that this village, 

 even in Saxon times, could not be the most abject of places, when the 

 inhabitants thought proper to assign so spacious a spot for the sports and 

 amusements of its young people." ED. 



