OF SELBORNE. 5 



LETTER II. 



TO THOMAS PENNANT, ESQUIRE. 



"N 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, 1 which, 

 though it had lost a considerable leading bough in the great 

 storm in the year 1703, 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 

 butt, where it measured near eight feet in the diameter. 

 This elm I mention to show to what a bulk planted elms may 

 attain, as this tree must certainly have been such from its 

 situation. 



In the centre of the village, and near the church, is a 

 square piece of ground surrounded by houses, and vulgarly 

 called Ike Plestor.' 2 In the midst of this spot stood, in old ^^ 

 times, a vast oak, with a short squat body, and huge hori- ,^ 

 zontal 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 



1 Ulmus montanus of modern botanists, and the common elm of the 

 north of England and Scotland. It is a valuable timber tree, and of 

 very different growth from that which is generally termed the common 

 elm, Ulmus campestris, seldom presenting so fine a bole as the latter, or 

 attaining so large a size. ED. 



2 The Plestor, originally called Pleystow, or play -place, was granted, \xrUw 

 as it subsequently appears, to the prior and convent of Selborne, in 1271, ( 

 by Sir Adam Gurdon and wife, as " all his right and claim to a certain 

 place (placed) called ' la Pleystow ' in the village aforesaid, ' in liberam, \J^^ 

 puram, et perpetuam elemosinam?" It is still used as a place for re- ^^^^ 

 creation by the village children. ED. 



