816 
MEMOIR OF 
lawn of which is covered with the most perfect soft grass carpet, 
on which I saw many water wagtails at work. Professor Bell 
will clouLtless forgive me when I sa}^ that his venerable appear- 
ance and the surroundings of his house, could not but make me 
imagine that when talking to him I was talking to the great 
Gilbert himself. The sun-dial in front of the drawing-room 
windows at Newton Valence parsonage is said to have been placed 
there by Gilbert White during his nephew's incumbency. 
From page 9 of the book the visitor will at once recognise 
White's house. It has been little, if at all, altered for many a 
long year. Out of this very door and through the lattice-gate 
Gilbert White passed to and fro into the village highway. 
The Plestor, page 5, is the " Charing Cross " of the village. The 
word " Plestor " means playing-place : — I suppose it may be 
freely translated " playground." The oak which White mentions 
as having been formerly there, and which was said to be 400 
years old, is now represented by a sycamore. This must have 
been a tree of some considerable size thirty-two years ago, and 
this because Mr. Binnie, Mr. Bell's gardener, tells me that at a 
fair held in the Plestor, and abolished thirty-two years since, one 
limb of it fell off and destroyed the booth owned by a black man. 
I would request the reader to peruse carefully the words of 
White describing the oak in the Plestor. They read thus : — 
" In the midst of this spot stood, in old times, a vast oak with a 
short squat body, and huge horizontal arms extending almost to 
the extremity of the area. This venerable tree, surrounded with 
stone steps and seats above them, was the delight of old and 
young, and a place of much resort in summer evenings, where 
the former sat in grave debate, while the latter frolicked and 
danced before them." 
When standing in the Plestor the idea suddenly struck me 
that the song of " The Old Oak-Tree," which we boys sang with 
such glee at Winchester School, was composed from White's 
description of the celebrated oak at Selborne. ISTot only is the 
general idea set in poetry, but even White's own words are 
partially adopted. Here are the words of the song : compare 
them with the words of the text : — 
" Here 's a song to the oak, the brave old oak. 
Who has stood in the greenwood long, 
Here 's health and renown to his broad green crown, 
And his trusty arms so strong. 
In tlie days of old when the spring with gold 
Was lighting the branches gray, 
Through the grass at his fe€t crept maidens sweet, 
