OF SELBORNE. 535 



fore add, that my tall seventy-four feet beech measures six 

 feet in the girth at two feet above the ground. Beeches 

 seem to me to thrive best on stoney, or chalkey cliffs, where 

 there seems to be little or no soil. Thus about a mile and 

 an half from me to the S.E. in an abrupt field, stand four 

 noble beech-trees on the edge of a steep, rocky ravine, or 

 water-gulley, the biggest of which measures 9 ft. 5 in. at 

 four feet from the ground. Their noble branching heads, 

 and smooth rind show that they are in the highest vigour 

 and preservation. Again the vast bloated, pollard, hollow 

 beeches, mentioned before, stood on the bare, naked end of 

 a chalky promontory, many of which measured from twenty 

 to thirty feet in circumference ! they were the admiration 

 of all strangers. How has prevailed the notion that all old 

 London was built with chestnut ? It is with us now vile 

 timber, porous, shakey, and fragile, and only fit for the 

 meanest coopery purposes. Yet have I known it smuggled 

 into Portsmouth dock as good ship building oak ! 1 



The more I observe and take notice of the best oaks now 

 remaining in this neighbourhood, the more I am astonished 

 at the oak which you planted yourself. For there is a most 

 noble tree of that kind near Hartely house, which I caused 

 to be measured last week ; when behold, at four feet above 

 the ground the girth proved to be only 14 ft., when yours 

 measured 12 ft. 6 in. ! Why this fine shafted tree, with 

 its majestic head, escaped the axe thirty years ago, when 

 Sir Simeon Stuart felled all its contemporaries, I cannot 

 pretend to say. If you ever happen to see the Hamadryad 

 of your favourite oak, pray give my respects to her. She 

 must be a fine venerable old lady. For a diverting story 

 respecting an Hamadryad, see the " Spectator/' vol. 8, p. 128. 



Behind my house I have got an outlet of seven acres laid 



1 In his " Observations on Vegetables " (p. 359), White has remarked, 

 " The timber and bark of these trees are so very like oak, as might, 

 easily deceive an indifferent observer. * * * Chestnut sells for half the 

 price of oak ; bat has sometimes been sent into the King's docks, and 

 passed off instead of oak." ED. 



