CHAPTER XX 

 THE SHEFFIELD ELM 



Here still an aged Elm aspires, 

 Beneath whose far projecting shade 

 (And which the shepherd still admires) 

 The children of the forest played. 



Philip Freneau 



OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES, in 

 speaking of his "tree wives," in- 

 cludes, among those of greatest size, 

 beauty and symmetry of form, the elm at 

 Sheffield, and adds that "size, first of all 

 and chiefly" constitutes a first class elm. 



Doubtless the Sheffield elm was so classi- 

 fied on account of its great beauty and 

 spread of branches, for it fails to show twenty 

 feet of clear girth at five feet from the ground 

 even at the present time. It has always 

 been considered as one of the most beautiful 

 elms in Massachusetts, and though old age 

 has at last crept upon it, the individuality 

 in the arrangement of its numerous branches 



