THE GEDAR. 



105 



elusive of the boughs, was about two hundred and 

 ninety-three cubic feet. In the night of the fifth of 

 November, 1794, it again suffered by a high wind, 

 which, blowing furiously from the north-west, de- 

 prived it of the principal top-branch, which fell 

 with a tremendous crash, and injured several of the 

 branches below in its fall. In 1821, Dr. May, its 

 present proprietor, and the able Master of the Gram- 

 mar School at Enfield, took its measurement, which 

 was as follows : seventeen feet in circumference at 

 one foot from the ground, sixty-four feet in perpen- 

 dicular height, and containing five hundred and 

 forty-eight cubic feet of timber, exclusive of the 

 branches, which from north-east to south-west 

 extend eighty-seven feet, and contain about two 

 hundred and fifty feet of timber, making in the 

 whole nearly eight hundred cubic feet of timber. 



Some years ago, this great ornament to Enfield 

 was destined to be cut down by a gentleman who 

 had purchased the spot on which it stood ; but the 

 contemplation of its loss excited so much regret and 

 discontent among several of the most respectable 

 inhabitants in the place, that he was obliged to re- 

 linquish the barbal-ous design, even after the trench 

 was dug around it, the saw-pit prepared, and the 

 axe almost lifted up for its destruction. An account 

 of the whole proceeding, as well as a very minute 

 one of the tree itself, is to be found in Mr. Robin- 

 son's valuable and interesting History of Enfield. 



