138 



The Forest Trees of WilUhin 



ledge goes, the finest specimen, in this county, of the common 

 elm, is to be found at Holt, near Trowbridge, standing on a small 

 triangular green, between the church and Holt brewery, close to 

 the latter. On visiting it lately, he ascertained its measurement 

 to be as follows : — at about five feet from the ground, twenty-two 

 feet in circumference ; at between one and two feet, thirty-four 

 feet ; and at the ground (as he was told and believes truly,) forty- 

 four feet. Its height is generally supposed to be about a hundred 

 feet ; probably not at all above the mark. So magnificent a tree 

 demaiids some further particulars. The main stem runs up, , I 

 straight, forty feet or more, where further trace of it is lost among 

 the branches, which are there so numerous and close that the eye \ 

 cannot follow the " stick " any higher. At about ten feet from the 

 ground, the first limbs, four in number, were thrown out; one on \ 

 each side of the stem : but of these three only remain, one having 

 been torn off in a storm some fifty years ago : — the only mutilation 

 of any consequence that this noble elm seems to have sustained | 

 during the many centuries in which it must have been exposed to 

 the wars of the elements. That one limb was sold for £15 ; from 

 which circumstance some approximating guess may be formed of 1 1 

 the great value of the tree at that time ; probably some £200 or 

 more. The wound caused by this loss, is somewhat lessened by the j 

 growing-in of the bark, in an effort of nature to close it up ; but 

 even now the cavity is fully five feet in length, and between three I 

 and four in breadth. Of the three remaining limbs, some are j] 

 upwards of ten feet in circumference where they spring from the 

 trunk. At this point of course as in almost all cases, they are not 

 round but oval; an elongated, perpendicular oval, a provision of 

 nature to give support to the limb by a sort of fulcrum. They all 

 sweep upwards soon after leaving the stem, becoming perpendicular 

 or very nearly so, at a distance of some few feet from the bole. 

 One of them which continued its horizontal growth further than 

 the others, has at a short distance from its source, sent up a second 

 shoot — a branch from a branch — so that there are two large timber 

 trees standing up, as it were on a bracket, from the side of the 

 parent stem. At some ten or twelve feet above this row of branches, 



