538 



The Museum Gazette 



There is now standing at Combeswell, near Haslemere, an 

 oak which was struck some years ago, which illustrates most 

 instructively all that we have advanced. We have already 

 described it at page 205. At the beautiful village of Lynch- 

 mere, about three miles from Haslemere, there stands, not far 

 from the Church, a row of most remarkable hollow trees. 

 There are six or seven of them and they stand at considerable 

 distances from each other. Their age is evidently very great, 

 but we are not aware of any facts which may make its estima- 

 tion possible. Most of them are more than mere stumps and 

 carry branches of considerable size, but all are hollow, and all 

 but one have doorways. In the one in which there is no good 

 side doorway there is an opening low down large enough for 

 boys to crawl in and gain access to the chimney above. In 

 two of these remarkable trees we have the curious phenome- 

 non of a tree growing in a tree. In one instance a birch and 

 in the other an ash has been implanted, probably by birds, in 

 the leaf mould which had gathered in the trunk six or eight feet 

 above the ground, and has there flourished. The trees thus 

 growing have attained considerable size, and the roots of one 

 of them passing down the oak stem have actually reached the 

 ground. The presence of these seems to prove conclusively 

 that at some distant period the oak bole must have been split 

 or a large branch torn off so as to admit rain water and allow 

 of the accumulation of mould. If it be suggested as im- 

 probable that several trees in a row should all in turn have 

 been struck by lightning, it may be plausibly replied that the 

 trees are very old and have weathered the storms of several 

 centuries. They stand also on the highest ground in the 

 neighbourhood, whilst the district seems to be peculiarly 

 liable to thunder-storms — possibly because there is much iron 

 sandstone. Probably the trees were struck one after the other 

 at intervals of many years. 



The continued growth of a tree-trunk after its middle has 

 been killed and a large side gap made, produces a very 

 curious condition, which has not as yet, we believe, been 



