178 Gilpin's fobest sceneey. 



great men did honour to it by building obelisks, 

 columns, and monuments of various kinds around 

 it, engraved with their arms and names, to which 

 the dates were added, and often some device. 

 Mr. Evelyn,* who prociired copies of several of 

 these monumental inscriptions, tells ns there were 

 near two hundred of them. The columns on 

 which they were fixed served also to bear up the 

 vast limbs of the tree, which began, through age, 

 to become unwieldy. Thus this mighty plant 

 stood many years in great state, the ornament of 

 the town, the admiration of the country, and sup- 

 ported, as it were, by the princes of the empire. 

 At length it felt the effects of war. Niestadt 

 was surrounded by an enemy, and the limbs of 

 this venerable tree were mangled in wantonness 

 by the besieging troops. "Whether it still exist, I 

 know not ; but long after these injuries it stood a 

 noble ruin, discovering by the foundations of the 

 several monuments which formerly propped its 

 spreading boughs, how far its limits had once 

 extended. 



* See Ev. Sylva, p. 225. 



