SYLVAN GIANTS. 291 



been celebrated so much, I cannot forbear men- 

 tioning another, whicli is equally remarkable for 

 having never been celebrated at all, though it is 

 one of the largest trees that perhaps ever existed 

 in England. If it had ever been noticed merely 

 for its bulk, I should have passed it over among 

 other gigantic plants that had nothing else to 

 boast, but as no historian or antiquarian, so far 

 as I have heard, has taken the least notice of it, I 

 thought it right, from this very circumstance, to 

 make up the omission by giving it, at least, what 

 little credit these papers could give. This Chest- 

 nut grows at a place called Wimley, near Hitchin 

 Priory, in Hertfordshire. In the year 1789, at five 

 feet above the ground, its girth was somewhat 

 more than fourteen yards. Its trunk was hollow, 

 and in part open. But its vegetation was still 

 vigorous. On one side its vast arms, shooting 

 up in various forms, some upright and others 

 oblique, were decayed and peeled at the extre- 

 meties, but issued from luxuriant foliage at their 

 insertion in the trunk. On the other side the 

 foliage was still full, and hid all decay.' * The 



* 'Forest Scenery,' page 191. 



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