THE ELM. 



63 



retreat for a Druid, whence he might have dispensed 

 his sacred oracles ; or in later times for a hermit, 

 who might have sat within the hollow stem with 

 " His few books, or his beads, or maple dish," 



and gazed on the stars as they passed over his head, 

 without his reflections being disturbed by the inter- 

 vention of a single outward object : but to the bene- 

 volent mind it gives rise to more pleasing ideas in its 

 present state : lifting its tranquil head over humble 

 roofs, which it has sheltered from their foundation, 

 and affording, in the projections and points around 

 its base, an inexhaustible source of pleasure to the 

 - train of village children who cluster like bees around 

 it ; trying their infant strength and courage in climb- 

 ing its mimic precipices, whilst their parents recall, 

 in their pastimes, the feelings of their own child- 

 hood ; when, like them, they disported under the 

 same boughs. It is such associations as these that 

 render a well-known and favourite tree an object 

 that no art can imitate ; no substitute replace. It 

 seems to live with us, and for us ; and he who can 

 wantonly destroy the source of so much innocent, 

 and indeed exalted gratification, appears to commit 

 an injury against a friend, which we find more diffi- 

 culty in forgiving than one against ourselves. It 

 would be impossible to see such a noble tree as the 

 Crawley Elm felled without regret ; — its aged head 

 brought prostrate to the ground, its still green 

 branches despoiled in the dust, its spreading roots 



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