4 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
LETTER II. To T. PENNANT, Esq. 
In the court of Norton farm-house, a manor farm to the north- 
west of the village, on the white malms, stood within these 
twenty years a broad-leaved elm, or wy eh hazel, ulmus folio latissimo 
scabro 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, be- 
ing too bulky for a carriage, was sawn off at seven feet above the 
butt, where it measured nearly 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.f In the midst of this spot stood, in old times, a A^ast 
oak, with a short squat body, and huge horizontal arms extend- 
ing 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. Long might it have stood, 
had not the amazing temnest in 1703 overturned it at once, to 
the infinite regret of the inhabitants and the vicar, who bestowed 
several pounds in setting it in its place again : but all his care 
could not avail ; the tree sprouted for a time, then withered and 
* Ulmus montanus of botanists, the common elm of Scotland and the north of England, 
and which is far from being of rare occurrence in the south, is a valuable timber tree, of very 
different growth from the U. campestris, which latter is more generally known as the " common 
elm." It is a fine and handsome species, but seldom attains the magnitude of the largest spe- 
cimens of U. camvestris, nor is it so stately and cumbrous in its aspect. It does not usually 
present so fine a bole, the strength being more in the branches, which, in young specimens, are 
often of nearly equal size w ith the main stem, and, being loaded with a profusion of foliage, the 
sprays inconsequence become pendent and "give the idea," as is well observed in Knapp's 
Journal of a Naturalist, " of luxuriance with weakness, of a growth beyond strength.'' 
Advancing in age, these boughs become in time less pensile, and project boldlj' into the air, 
whence the species has a very pleasing effect planted in an avenue, its huge arms extending across 
m every picturesque form, and finely contrasting with the rich green of its leaves, which, for the 
most part, are distributed in dense umbrageous masses. The Wych elm has however one 
grand defect as an ornamental tree, being generally, in exposed situations, the very first to 
intimate, by its denuded boughs, the unwelcome approach of winter — a character in which it 
remarkably differs from the common species, the latter retaining its foliage for a much longer 
period, and, "ere at length its season does arrive," being finely mellowed with the golden hues of 
autumn. The largest example of the Wych elm on record is one that grew in the park of Sir 
Walter Bag-got, in Staffordshire, and which is mentioned in the second vol. of Evelyn's Sylva, p. 
189. This noble tree, after two men had been five days felling it, lay 120 feet in length, and waj 
17 feet diameter at the stool. As Mr. Evelyn remarks, "this was truly a goodly tree." Five 
species of elm are enumerated by Sir J. E. Smith as indigenous to Britain, and at lefist as 
many more have been introduced. Thej' are all closely allied, and some are very diificult to 
distinguish. — Ed. 
t Vide description in the Antiquities. 
