OF SELBORNE. 
5 
LETTER II. 
TO THOMAS PENNANT, ESQUIRE. 
N the court of J^orton farm-house, a manor 
farm to tlie north-west of the village, on the 
white malms, stood within these twenty- 
years a hroad-leaved elm, or wych hazel, 
Ulmus folio latissimo scahro of Ray/ which, 
though it had lost a considerable leading bough in the great 
storm in the year 1703, equal to a moderate tree, yet, when 
felled^ contained eight loads of timber; and, being too 
bulky for a carriage, was sawn off at seven feet above the 
butt, where it measured near eight feet in the diameter. 
This elm I mention to show to what a bulk planted elms may 
attain, as this tree must certainly have been such from its 
situation. 
In the centre of the village, and near the church, is a 
square piece of ground surrounded by houses, and vulgarly 
called The Plestor.'"^ In the midst of this spot stood, in old 
times, a vast oak, with a short squat body, and huge hori- 
zontal 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 
* Ulmus montanus of modern botanists, and the common elm of the 
north of England and Scotland. It is a valuable timber tree, and of 
very different growth from that which is generally termed the common 
elm, Ulmus campestris, seldom presenting so fine a bole as the latter, or 
attaining so large a size. — Ed. 
^ The Plestor, originally called Pleystow^ or play-place, was granted, 
as it subsequently appears, to the prior and convent of Selborne, in 1271, 
by Sir Adam Gurdon and wife, as " all his right and claim to a certain 
place (placea) called ' la Pleystow ' in the village aforesaid, ' in liberam, 
p7iram, et perpetuam elemosinam^ " It is still used as a place for re- 
creation by the village children. — Ed. 
